It is good to see you and I trust
that the Lord will bless us as we gather together to worship
him. Let's have a word of prayer. Our gracious God and loving Father,
we approach Thee in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and
we thank Thee for the promise given that access will be granted
to us as we come before Thee upon the grounds and merits of
our precious Lord and Saviour. And we do not dare to approach
upon any other ground than this foundation that the Lord Jesus
Christ represents us before his Father and intercedes for our
every need. We thank thee for the precious
blood of our Saviour. We thank thee for the death that
he endured We bless thee, our God, for the design of this great
plan of salvation, and we ask that thou wilt once again remind
us of what it cost our Saviour, our precious Saviour, to lay
down his life for us. We pray that in all of our days
that we will have occasion to be thankful for thy mercies and
as we've been reminded even in our thoughts this evening of
how feeble we are as a people, how much we are indebted to thee
for so many blessings and for thy continuing goodness. We thank
thee for health and strength. We thank thee for the skill of
the doctors and the nurses that can manage the situations which
rise in our bodies of flesh. We thank thee that despite the
scare that Norm had this week, that thou hast restored him to
health and strength. And we thank thee for his presence
here and his contribution amongst us. And for all those who gather
under the sound of thy word, we thank thee that thou art pleased
to uphold and maintain our health to such a degree that we can
be here. And we know, our God, that there
are others amongst us who have much longer-term ailments and
challenges that perhaps the rest of us are little aware of. And we just ask that thou wilt
be pleased to enable us to commit one another to thy care and keeping
all these days of our lives. that as we make this journey
through this valley of death, that we might know the comfort
and consolation of thy presence with us in all the challenges
that we face, the difficulties that we encounter, the trials
that must be endured. We ask our God that thou would
give us such a sense of thy presence that we will be able to say,
I have no fear. We acknowledge thy continuing
grace and mercy to us in so many temporal, practical, material
ways. And we thank thee that these
are but evidences of that great spiritual work that has been
wrought on our behalf. And we pray that the Lord Jesus
Christ will receive our thanks this night from hearts that are
aware of the privileges we possess. For Jesus' sake we ask it. Amen. We're going to open by singing
hymn number 16. The first hymn is hymn number
16. Praise my soul, the King of heaven,
to his feet thy tribute bring. Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven,
evermore his praises sing. Hallelujah, praise the everlasting
King. Praise my soul. to his feet thy tribute bring. Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven,
evermore his praises sing. Alleluia! Alleluia! Praise the everlasting
King! For His grace and favor To our
fathers in distress. Praise Him still, the same forever,
Slow to chide and swift to bless. Alleluia, Alleluia, glorious
in His faithfulness. Father, like He tends and spares
us, when our feeble frame He knows. In His hand He gently
bears us, rescues us from all our foes. Alleluia! Alleluia! ? Yet His mercy flows ? ? Angels
help us to adore Him ? ? Ye behold Him face to face ? ? Sun and
moon bow down before Him ? ? Dwellers all in time and space ? Alleluia,
alleluia, praise with us the God of grace. Turn with me please to Psalm
23. Psalm 23, we're going to continue on our study of these
verses as the Lord enables. Psalm 23, and our verse this
evening is verse 4, but let's read the psalm together. Psalm
23, a psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want. He maketh me to lie down in green
pastures, he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth
my soul, he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his
name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou
art with me, thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Thou
preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies,
thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over. Surely goodness
and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will
dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Amen. May God bless
to us this reading from his word. The Lord Jesus Christ, in the
days of his life, suffered and endured more than any other man
ever has in this world. He suffered in his life and in
his death more than anyone else ever has. The book of Lamentations is the
lament that Jeremiah made concerning the fall of Jerusalem and the
destruction of that city that was precious to the prophet. and we speak about the book of
Lamentations, the Lamentations of, we assume, Jeremiah. But the book of Lamentations
is Christ's book. The book of Lamentations speaks
frequently if we have eyes to see and ears to hear of the sufferings
of the Lord Jesus Christ also. And in that book, in fact, in
the first chapter of that book, in verse 12, we have a little
passage which I think more fits the experience of the Lord Jesus
Christ than anything else possible. And it simply says this, Lamentations
chapter 1 verse 12. Is it nothing to you, all ye
that pass by? You remember how they passed
by the Lord as he hung on the cross, how they shook their heads
at him, how they mocked him, how they thought this was a mere execution of a common man which
was one amongst a multitude of similar executions that took
place under the Roman system. But the Lord Jesus Christ has
these words placed in his mouth by God the Holy Spirit. Is it
nothing to you all ye that pass by? Behold and see if there be
any sorrow Like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith
the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. The old song says, nobody knows
the sorrow I've seen. Well, there's only one man of
whom that can actually be truly declared, and that is our Saviour. Behold, and see if there be any
sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me, wherewith the
Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. And yet, despite knowing all
that he must suffer, despite knowing that he would suffer
to such an extent and degree, and that he must die, and that
he must endure all these things in soul and in body. Our Lord Jesus Christ, for the
love wherewith he loved us. Think on that. For the love wherewith
he personally was so affected by the love which he possessed
for each one of us. willingly undertook the obligations
of the covenant of God, that covenant of peace, that only
way, that only means that peace could be forged between a holy
God and a fallen people, willingly undertook all the obligations
that he might win his bride. and deliver his people from their
sin and from judgment. In John chapter six, verse 38,
we read a little bit about that. We hear the Lord saying, for
I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the
will of him that sent me. And again, a few chapters further
on in 17, verse four, I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished the work which
thou gavest me to do." The Lord Jesus Christ knew full well that
the sum total, the comprehensiveness of this suffering and death,
the extent and the nature, the brutality of this suffering was
the will of God, the necessary will of God. for the accomplishment of redemption. And so he willingly undertook
to do the Father's will, to come to this world, to go to the cross,
to suffer and to die for us. And I trust that we have seen
something in these most recent few studies that we have done
about how the Lord Jesus Christ was upheld and sustained in his
trouble, sustained in his soul during this earthly sojourn that
he undertook, not during his three years of ministry only,
but in his whole life, such that the protecting, restoring, guiding
hand of his Lord, his Father, his Shepherd was upon him. And in Psalm 23, we see the words
of Christ being spoken. He speaks these words, He declares
these sentiments, He possesses, He owns this psalm before it
becomes ours. we gain great comfort in going
to the Lord, the Lord Jesus, with our problems. I'm sure that
there were prayers put up this week in an explicit situation
of a problem that arose, and we find ourselves in that situation,
whatever it might be, and you had yours, and you had yours,
and I had mine. And we say, Lord, help me. Lord, be gracious to me. Lord, tell me what to say. Show me what to do. Undertake
for me in this situation. And it might be some loss that
we have had to deal with, or some request for help that comes
to us, some sickness that we, to endure. We're tried, we're
wearied, we're tempted in this world, in this flesh, day by
day. And we put up our prayers to
the Lord. But let us realize something.
But this Good Shepherd, this Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ,
does not fly to our aid upon the giving up of our prayer,
as if suddenly he's made aware that one of his lambs is in need
and he rushes to our defence. That would be such a superficial
way to look at our prayers and our Lord. The Lord our shepherd
knows exactly what we need. all the time. And though our
awareness and our experience kind of ebbs and flows and rises
and falls and dips and reaches the heights and at certain times,
not when we're up there do we pray to God for help, but when
we're down there we do. Not when we're coasting, when
we're in control, When life's a breeze, when we're managing
things nicely, thank you very much, not then do we pray, but
when we stumble, and when we fall, and when we hurt, and when
our vulnerabilities are exposed, then is when our prayers fly
to the Lord, fly into heaven. But let us remember that the
Lord has been a long time planning this route on which we walk. We have a good shepherd that
leads his flock. We have a good shepherd that
is on the road with us, that is bringing us along the way,
who doesn't come flying to our help when our prayers drop because
he's already here in these things with us. He brings us along this
path. He travels along this road with
us. He goes before us. Our loving
Savior designed and constructed the elements of our trials long
before we realized the predicament that we were in. He designed
it. He brought it about. And He reminds
us that we have a need of him because our flesh constantly
distracts us, draws us away, causes us to look elsewhere,
makes us think we're managing things very well without the
need of any external involvement. And in fact, we constantly need
our good shepherd with us. And the Lord Jesus Christ understood
this in his own life's experience. And thus he says, yea, though
I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear
no evil. Now what does that phrase mean? What is this, the valley of the
shadow of death that is spoken of in these verses, verse 4? I think it's a broad term. I
think it's a term that can legitimately be employed to mean a variety
of things, that there are incidents, there are circumstances in which
we might use this phrase with a number of applications. It
can, for example, mean death itself. It can mean death. It can mean that process of dying. And that is perhaps one of the
greatest challenges that we have as mortals to face in this world. The fact that this body must
go to the grave, the fact that it cannot endure for many more
than a few decades of time, and sometimes a lot less. Such that
in the midst of living, we suddenly discover that one and two around
about us are taken away. And we hear about those that
are taken so very often. One taken here and one taken
there. And I have a friend, a good friend,
who even now is probably entering into some of the last days and
weeks, perhaps a little bit longer, who knows what the Lord will
give. But care is needed, the nurses are involved, the doctors
are looking after this person, and we know that it is only a
matter of time. in the shadow of the valley of
death. And there is a prospect of that. Not only is there the experience
of it, but there is the prospect of it too. And we anticipate
what that is going to be like. And I guess some of us are a
little bit older and some of us are a little bit frailer than
others, but looking around, I guess most of us are in the wrong side
of youth and vitality. John accepted. But that's what we've got to
look forward to. It is going to happen. There
will be a generation for whom the Lord will come back. And
I have heard many people over the years saying, that I believe
the Lord is coming soon, and I believe this generation won't
taste death, and I've seen them go to their graves. We don't
know when the Lord is coming back, but we do know that it
is appointed unto men once to die, and there is a day coming,
and we know that this flesh must be laid down. And so how do we
deal with the anticipation That is the shadow that is cast across
our lives. How do we deal with the situation
of our own mortality and the fact that we have to leave this
body behind? This body that in many ways we've
kind of become attached to. We look after it. The things
that we eat, the exercises that we do, the things that we don't
do in case we hurt ourselves. And we take care of that which
we know must go the way of all flesh. Hebrews 2 verse 15 speaks
of those who are delivered. To deliver them who through fear
of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. Fear of death
is binding. And there's lots goes on in this
world to try and distract people from the reality of their mortality. I wish more people would just
give a little bit of thought to their own mortality and to
think to themselves, what happens in that moment of my death? People laud and applaud the celebrities
who have died, and those who die young are so often praised
with claims that they were so able, so clever, so wonderful. And yet, many of them are in
hell when those very same plaudits are being given. Or we might consider that the
whole of our life is a journey through a long valley over which
the shadow of our mortality hangs. Dust we are, and dust we will
return to. Flesh, this flesh, this body,
has a shadow over it, a shadow of death that for the believer
contends constantly with the soul made right with God. so that the old man and the new
man, that which has the shadow of death in it, and that which
is born again, is constantly contending in our life, day in,
day out, in order to gain the supremacy, and in order to damage
that holy thing which God the Holy Spirit has implanted in
us. I think whatever way we want
to consider this phrase, the valley of the shadow of death,
it appears to me that the Lord in using it, and we as we use
it in the same context, might well think of it as suggesting
confidence in our extremity. That's where I want to leave
with you. What this is telling us is that we can have confidence
in our extreme needs, whatever they might be, that we have the
right to go to the Lord, that we have access into his presence,
that we can take our concerns, our anxieties, whatever they
may be, though it be even death itself, that greatest of fears
for flesh, that greatest of enemies for the natural man, that no
matter what it is, no matter what shadow comes over our lives,
we who are the Lord's have the right to go to Him with our needs
and with our prayers. No matter how severe, how dark,
how terrible might be the twists and turns of this journey, I
will not be afraid. That's what the Lord is teaching
us here to say. No matter where he leads me,
I am going to hold this thought that he has walked this way before.
that He has designed this trial for me, that there is a purpose
in this for my eternal good, and my God does all things well. Therefore, whatever happens,
whatever the day holds, whatever the loss might be, whatever the
hurt might be that has to be endured, and we look at those
that we love, and we look at those that are dear to us, and
we see those things around about us that we cherish and have affection
for, and we know that sooner or later these things must pass. But the believer has this hope,
that even in the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear
no evil. for the Lord is with me. Our
Lord Jesus Christ believed that. He believed that evil would not
defeat him throughout his life. He knew that the enemy would
not overthrow him, that death itself would have to succumb
to the greater power that God promised to him. And that was
the Lord Jesus Christ's testament. He believed His Father would
raise Him again from the dead. The Lord Jesus Christ trusted.
He had faith in His Father. He believed that the Father would
raise Him from the dead. Upon what ground was that belief
maintained? The promise of God. Jesus read
the Old Testament prophecies just as much as we are able to. And he looked to his shepherd,
and he looked to his upholder, and he read Acts chapter 2, verse
31, which said of David in his prophetic capacity, speaking
of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in
hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. Peter says in that
sermon, this Jesus hath God raised up. You see, the Lord Jesus Christ
knew what David was talking about. He knew that that applied to
him, and therefore he had faith in his father that these things
would be so. In John chapter two, verse 19,
we read, Jesus answered and said unto them, destroy this temple,
And in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, Forty
and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear
it up in three days? but he spake of the temple of
his body. When therefore he was risen from
the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them,
and they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had
said." The disciples believed it because they'd seen it happening. They believed the evidence. But
the Lord Jesus Christ believed the promise. He believed that
his Father would do it before it happened. The apostles, the
disciples, we believe because we have seen that it did happen. Now if the Lord Jesus Christ
believed the Father, ought we to fear? If the Lord Jesus Christ
trusted his Father, ought we to trust these promises? these
promises of life everlasting, these promises of resurrection
from the dead. Our Savior asks nothing of us
in our life's experience that he has not endured personally,
himself, or undertaken for us. He doesn't ask us to walk where
he has not already walked. The Father accepted the Son's
offering. The Father was satisfied with
those things which Jesus accomplished. Christ believed the promise and
we are called to believe the evidence that Jesus Christ is
risen. Christ said in John 11, verse
25, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in
me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And Paul writing
to the Corinthians in his first letter, chapter 15, verse 55
says, O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? We ought to rejoice in that verse. We ought to sing that verse so
loudly, so passionately, so eagerly. Relish its message. O death, where is thy sting?
O grave, where is thy victory? There is an evil in this world. There is death in this world. Do not doubt it. We experience
it. We see it. We know what it's
about. We know what it can do. The Bible
itself calls it our enemy. Yet we will pass through this
valley and we need not fear. We need not fear as those who
are without a shepherd do fear because we have a shepherd and
he is leading us with his presence through this valley. The writer
to the Hebrews says in chapter 13, verse 6, so that we may boldly
say, the Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall
do unto me. Do you notice that verse says,
I shall not fear, or I'm sorry, it says, I will not fear what
man shall do unto me. not what he can do unto me, not
what he might do unto me, but what he shall do unto me. These things are coming. These
things are coming down the line to meet us. We will be called
to endure Now yours might be different from mine and mine
to someone else's, but let us not imagine we're going to get
out of this world unscathed. It is through much tribulation
that we enter into the kingdom. So get that right and let us
then stand upon this foundation of the promises of God and the
example of our Saviour and say boldly, I will not fear. what happens to me. Where does
our confidence lie? It lies upon the very same foundation
as the faith and confidence of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is
our example. And the Lord specifies three
things in this verse. He specifies the presence of
God, the rod of God, and the staff of God. These are the three
things that comforted our Savior. The Lord Jesus Christ rested
in his humanity upon the rod and the staff of the Lord. The
presence of God with his people is a very dear and precious thing
to us. I do trust you're remembering
that the Lord is here with us this evening. I do trust you're
remembering that the angels are witness to what it is we are
doing tonight. that where two or three are gathered
together, there am I in the midst, says the Lord. The presence of
the Lord is a wonderful promise that we have as his people, and
we might not be numbered in the hundreds, and we might not be
calculated on the grand scheme of importance as far as this
world is concerned. And those who pass by might think
to themselves, what a load of clowns those people are, sitting
in there listening to that guy ranting. I've got so much more
important things to do with my life than to be engaged in something
like that. So be it. But those of us who
know the Lord know what it is to sit in his presence and to
enjoy his company as we worship him. And so the presence of the
Lord is a blessed thing. The rod is the sovereign power
of our God. The rod speaks of the power of
God, of his ordaining, his ruling, and his reigning in this world.
And the staff speaks of his sustaining goodness. his providential love. It's the staff that keeps us
in the way. It's the staff that directs us
when we go in the wrong direction. He says, I am with you. I am
in control. I will provide for all your needs. Isaiah 41 verse 10 says, Fear
thou not, for I am with thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy
God. I will strengthen thee, yea,
I will help thee, yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand
of my righteousness. When we go to bed at night, the
Lord is with us. When we rise up in the morning,
the Lord is with us. Whether we are in or whether
we are out, the Lord is with us. We're walking, he's present. We're driving, he's there. In
times of trouble, in times of war, in times of hardship, in
times of distress, in times of good, and in times of peace,
in times of joy, when we give him little thought, he is there. And he says to his people, fear
not. We're not saying there won't
be any trouble. But we do say that only trouble
that does us good will be allowed to encroach upon our lives. We're not saying that our life
is going to be easy, but we are saying that these difficulties
will be full of blessing for us. We're not saying that there
will not be bitterness. But that bitterness will end
in sweetness as we find the Lord to be our present help and companion. A couple of verses from a hymn
writer, William Cooper, wrote, Ye fearful saints, fresh courage
take. The clouds ye so much dread are
big with mercy and shall break in blessings on your head. Judge not the Lord by feeble
sense, but trust him for his grace. Behind a frowning providence
he hides a smiling face. His purposes will ripen fast,
unfolding every hour. The bud may have a bitter taste,
but sweet will be the flower. Blind unbelief is sure to err
and scan his work in vain. God is his own interpreter, and
he will make it plain. The presence of the Lord is with
us as we experience every trial. He is our vanguard and our rearguard,
and he guards our flanks and he hovers above us. In dark times,
when the shadows seem to enter our soul, He is the light that
dispels them. When the flesh trembles, when
the mind wavers, when strength fails us, the Lord is to be trusted. He says, of His Father thou art
with me. And he says to us, lo, I am with
you always. Hebrews 4 verse 15 says, we have
not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of
our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are,
yet without sin. As I was thinking about this
evening's sermon, I stumbled across a verse in Isaiah 63,
and I found myself thinking, have I ever read that verse before? I'm not familiar with that. And
it's in verse 9 of Isaiah 63. This is what it says. In all
their affliction, he was afflicted. In all of their affliction, He
was afflicted. So, whatever it is that we endure,
whatever it is that we have to deal with, whatever it is this
old body throws at us, whatever it is this world tempts us with,
whatever it is we have to endure, from the world, the flesh, or
the devil, in all our affliction, He was afflicted. And the angel
of his presence saved them. The angel of his presence. thou
art with me always. When I walk through the valley
of the shadow of death, thou art with me. The angel of his
presence saved them. In his love and in his pity,
he redeemed them, and he bared them, and he carried them all
the days of old. I suspect I'll be going back
to that verse, and it will become a lot more familiar to me in
the coming weeks and months. That's the presence of God. I
just want to touch a couple of things upon the rod of God and
the staff of God, and then we're over this evening. The rod of
God is not the rod of punishment, but it is the sceptre of power. It speaks of sovereign might. It speaks of a reliable defence. It speaks of effectual protection. The Lord is in control. He has
comforted his people. I keep saying to people, because
I just love this, comfort has within it, it is by design, it's
a fort. The F-O-R-T in comfort means
a defense. That's the etymology of the word.
That's where the word comes from. And he is our effectual defense. He is the one that comforts us.
Now you only need a fort when you've got an enemy on the outside
that's throwing spears that burn my ears. But he's our fort. Matthew 26 says, Thinkest thou
that I cannot now pray to my Father, and He shall presently
give me more than twelve legions of angels? The Lord Jesus Christ
knew that His Father was in control. He knew that the rod in which
He trusted could rend the heavens and send legions, twelve legions
of angels. I looked it up on Google. You know how many were in a legion? I bet you do, I bet you wouldn't
have had to look it up. 5,000. At this time there would
have been 5,000 soldiers in a legion. Now, my math says to me that
12 legions is a lot of soldiers. And the Lord Jesus Christ could
say to that mob that came to him in the garden with their
spears and their... torches to take him and to arrest
him. He could say to those Roman soldiers
that did their duty around the cross as they took him and put
him on the cross and crucified him. He could say to those leaders,
be it Pilate or to the Jews, do you think that I can't just
call my father right now and he will send me 12 legions of
angels? such as the rod of God, what
have we to fear? Those that are against us are
not greater than those that are for us. Those angels that watch
the redeemed of the Lord, the loved, the beloved of God, those
angels that are sent to protect and to support and to encourage
the Lord's people, those angels that are always flying before
the face of God, do you think they would Hesitate for a moment
in drawing their swords and dispatching our enemies if that was what
they were called upon to do? Not for a moment. Not for a moment. They stood around the mountaintops
in the days of the prophet, ready to destroy the armies that came
against the people of God. And they are standing there tonight
for us as well. If only we had eyes to see them.
There is no need for fear. The Lord calls us to trust in
Him. He continues in the next verse,
but how then? I could call 12 legions of angels
right now, but how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled that
thus it must be? You see, with a whole army of
valiant angels at his disposal, the Lord Jesus Christ embraced
death for us. because he knew that the bearing
of our sin on his body, on the tree, was the way of our salvation. and for the sake of the love
that he had for us, he willingly underwent that ravaging upon
his body. Isaiah 53 verse 8 says, for the
transgression of my people was he stricken. The rod of God speaks
of the authority of God. The staff of God speaks of the
shepherd's crook. The telling tool. The telling
tool. You know what a teller is? You
do have banks in Australia, I guess, and maybe before the days of
automated banking, you would go in and you would see the teller
behind the grill in the bank, and she would, or he would, do
your business for you. And how did he tell? How did
that teller tell for you? Well, he counted out your money. That's what the teller did, he
counts out. And that's what the shepherd's
staff is. It is a tool for telling. It's a tool for counting. It's
a tool for specifying. It's a tool for distinguishing. It's a tool for managing the
Lord's flock. for counting, for numbering,
for steering, for prodding, for poking, for managing the Lord's
people. The Lord uses his staff, thy
rod and thy staff, they comfort me. When I was a little bit younger,
there was a conflict that the United Kingdom was engaged in,
in the Southern Ocean, the South Atlantic, with the Argentines. They called it the Falklands
War. And I remember as a youngster
hearing one of the BBC reporters that was embedded on one of the
ships, and he was speaking about the, it was an aircraft carrier,
and he was speaking about the aircraft that were going out
and flying over the Falklands. And he said, He said, this is
sort of the news at 10 comes on and they go live to HMS, whatever
it is. And he says, I'm not allowed
to tell you where they were going. I'm not allowed to tell you how
many there were, but I counted them all out and I counted them
all back in again. And that's what the teller does.
And that's what the Lord does. He knows us. He counts us out
and He counts us in. He is with us. We are personal
to Him. He takes care of His sheep. He
knows them that are His. So who amongst us will not be
comforted in the knowledge of His staff? as well as His rod
taking care of His people. With His sovereign rod of power
and with His personal and providential management of our lives, God's
control is a comfort to us. The comfort that the Lord Jesus
Christ received from His Father is ours as we are in Him. It is conveyed to us in Christ,
so that all that the Father gave to the Son is our possession
also, and all that the Son drew in comfort from his Father, so
the Son dispenses to his people. and our eternal destiny is wound
up, bound up together with the successful accomplishments of
the Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross. In Christ, we have been
moved from that place of the valley of the shadow of death
into that place of brightest glory where God reigns and his
people worship his name. We've got a final thought and
then we're done. Some might question as to why the Lord in his own
death could be both forsaken on the cross by his Father and
yet declare in this psalm Though I walk through the valley of
the shadow of death, thou art with me. How are those two things
comparable? How is it possible for the Lord
to be able to say in this psalm, though I walk through the valley
of the shadow of death, thou art with me, and at the same
time declare on the cross, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? Well, I understand it in this
way. Though the father did indeed forsake his son in the hours
of wrath and retribution, nevertheless, the sure promises of God continued
to comfort the son in the midst of his suffering. The Lord's
soul was distressed as he endured the weight of judgment against
his people's sin. He became sin for us. He, as that one who had been
perfect in all his ways, learned what it was to taste the bitterness
of sin, and learned what it was to endure the judgment of that
sin in his own soul. And yet God continued to comfort
his son, even in the midst of that place of suffering and forsakenness. Though he no longer felt the
presence of his father, yet the rod and the staff continued. For he knew that God was in control,
and he knew that the providential care of God was yet upon him. The rod of sovereignty attested
the justice of God, but it also promised mercy. When the Lord
Jesus Christ knelt in that garden and said, if it be possible,
let this cup pass from me, nevertheless not my will but thine be done,
the Lord Jesus Christ was committing himself into the sovereign purpose
of God. but he was trusting that that
cup would indeed pass from him when it had been consumed, when
it had been drunk and when that wrath and bitterness had all
been taken away. The staff of telling attested
that the prize of the full number of sinners for whom the Lord
Jesus Christ suffered and died would be brought in as his bride. And so the Lord died there under
the wrath of God, forsaken of his Father, but yet at the very
end laying hold upon the promise of God's sovereign purpose, of
his promises, of the covenant that he had entered into, and
viewing the prize that was there for him at the end of his suffering. Isaiah 53 verse 10 says, It pleased
the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. When thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong
his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his
hand. He shall see of the travail of
his soul and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall
divide the spoiled with the strong, because he hath poured out his
soul unto death. And he was numbered with the
transgressors, and he bared the sin of many, and made intercession
for the transgressors. What a wonderful God we have
to devise such a plan as that. What a wonderful Saviour we have
to have accomplished every requirement that we would ever need. And
what a wonderful Holy Ghost we have to apply these precious
promises and truths to our hearts in the midst of our needs. Amen.