In Psalm 22, we come to the Psalm of the cross. When you read this Psalm, put
yourself on that place called Calvary at the foot of the cross
and hear the Savior's lamentations as your sin-atoning substitute. In order to redeem and save his
people from their sins, God the Son took on himself our humanity
He stooped to become a man and he stooped in his manhood to
become the servant of men. He emptied himself, made himself
of no reputation and walked on this earth for 33 years, despised
and rejected of men. He lived here being given no
honor from anyone except the pretended honor, the pretended honor, just pretended
honor that those who ate the loaves and fishes pretended to
give him because they wanted more loaves and fishes. The folks
who were healed or saw others healed by him pretended to give
him honor because they wanted to see more miracles. But while
he walked among men, the only men who gave him any honor were
those whose hearts were touched by the hand of his grace, made
new by him, and made to experience the forgiveness of sins by him,
and caused to know who he is, God in human flesh come to save. After 33 years, Our Lord Jesus
went up to Mount Calvary. He went up to Jerusalem, set
his face like a flint that he might, according to the will
of God who sent him, lay down his life for his sheep. And as
he hung upon the cursed tree, nailed there by the hands of
wicked men, according to the determinate counsel and foreknowledge
of God. God's darling son was made sin for us. And God poured on him all the
fury of his holy wrath until justice was fully satisfied. And our Savior cried, it is finished. bowed his head, said, Father,
into thy hands I commend my spirit, and breathed out his life, having
finished his work as Jehovah's righteous servant. In Psalms
22 and 69, and I urge you to read the two Psalms together,
you have the groans and the cries of our Lord Jesus as he suffered
upon the cursed tree under the wrath of God. Isaiah 53 tells
us what the result of our Lord's suffering must be. He shall prolong
his days. He shall see his seed. He shall see of the travail of
his soul and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge, God's righteous
servant will justify every one of those for whom he died. Every
sinner for whom he died shall be with him in glory. He, the
crucified Christ, sits on the throne of glory now exalted to
be a prince and a savior to give repentance and remission of sins
to all for whom he died. Oh, may he give repentance to
you and remission of sins to you by the mighty power of his
grace through the merits of his sin atoning sacrifice. This morning,
I want us to look at this 22nd Psalm. Particularly, I'll be
working my way to verse six. where the Lord Jesus says, I
am a worm. I am a worm. That's my subject. I'm not looking for something
to say. I want you to hear God in the flesh. say what we just read. I am a worm. So he stooped that he might make
worms like us the sons of God in everlasting glory. Back up
to verse one. The psalm begins with these words
of one forsaken of God. Suffers for three hours in darkness,
this utter darkness covering the earth. And he breaks the
silence of the darkness and cries with a loud voice, my God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me? When he who knew no sin was made
sin for us, his holy father, the holy Lord God, abandoned
him. I know how the commentators and
the wise theologians like to explain away what's stated plainly
in scriptures, because they want to make sure we have no misunderstanding
of the person and character of God. God wrote his word as he did
for a reason, to make Don Ranieri and Don Fortner know, as best
we can know, what God the Son endured for us. He was abandoned
by God. No help. No indication of sympathy. No reaching out of the hand to
his troubled soul. Abandoned by God. Because we
long ago abandoned God in our rebellion. And he was made to
be what we are, that he might make us what he is. He was made
saying that we might be made righteous. And when he was, he
cried, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? Why are thou
so far from helping me? Listen to this. And from the
words of my roaring, from the words of my roaring, Oh, my God, I cry in the daytime,
but thou hearest not, and in the night season, and am not
silent. But thou art holy. Oh, thou that inhabitest the
praises of Israel. Why was he forsaken? Because God is a purer eyes than
to behold iniquity. Because God cannot and will not
look upon sin. He says in verse four, our fathers
trusted in thee. They trusted and thou didst deliver
them. I cry and you won't hear me.
I roar like a caged lion caught in a trap. I roar and you won't
hear me. Our fathers, none of them ever
called on you that you didn't answer them. They trusted in
thee and thou didst deliver them. They cried unto thee and were
delivered. They trusted in thee and were
not confounded. Not one of them. Not one of them. When Abraham cried, the Lord
heard him. When Job cried, the Lord heard
him. When Noah cried, the Lord heard
him. But here, God's own son cries,
my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? You hear the cries
of any other man, but why not this man? But I am a worm and no man. I have become a man that I might
become something less than a man for the sake of fallen man. I'm a worm and no man, a reproach
of men and despised of the people. All they that see me laugh me
to scorn. They shoot out the lips. We're told the rulers despite
derided him and the soldiers mocked him. Look here in verse
eight. They shake their head saying
he trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him. Let him deliver
him seeing he delighted in him. Can you picture this? Our little
children, the small children, they get by with making faces
and sticking out their tongues and wagging their heads when
they're playing. Now, if they're being rude, if
they're being rude, you pop them. You don't do that. But they're
just playing. You expect them to stick out
their tongues, wag their heads, and put their fingers in their
ears, thumbs in their ears, and wave their hands. You expect
that. That's what to expect from little
children. But if you see grown men doing that, if you see grown women like that,
you think there's something wrong with those folks. They popped
a cork or they're just flat drunk. They don't know what they're
doing. They've lost their minds. Listen to this. This is the record
of Matthew. They that passed by reviled him. Now these are priests and scribes, Pharisees. These are preachers with robes
on. These are preachers who are theologians. They got doctor's
degrees. And soldiers and princes and drunks and harlots and common
folks in the streets. Religious people, they passed
by and reviled him, wagging their heads. Likewise, also the chief
priest mocking him with the scribes and the elders. They said, he
trusted in God, let him deliver him now if he will have him. And when they did, they stuck
out their tongues and they stuck their thumbs in their ears and
they wagged their heads and shook them and just balked at him.
Our Lord Jesus says in verse 12 of Psalm 22, strong bulls
of Bashan had beset me. They gaped upon me with their
mouths. Verse 16. He says, the dogs have
compassed me. Now he's talking about religious
folks. He's talking about the scribes and the Pharisees and
the chief priests and the elders. He said, these strong bulls of
Bashan, these dogs, they've compassed me, they've gaped upon me with
their mouth. And we read in Matthew's gospel, sitting down, they watched
him there. The thieves also, the two who
were crucified with him, cast the same in their teeth. They snarled at him. We read
in verse 16, chapter 22, Psalm, they pierced my hands and feet. Verse 14, all my bones are out
of joint. The Roman method of crucifixion
was unknown in Jewish law. Until the days of the Romans,
this was not something commonly known anyway. But here in the
prophecy of the Psalms, the psalmist writes to us by divine inspiration,
telling us that God's darling son would be put to death by
crucifixion. He would be nailed to the cursed
tree. Emmanuel spiked to the cross,
tearing his flesh and his muscle and his bone. The very action
of the soldiers is given in these words, verse 18. They part my
garments among them. They cast lots upon my vesture. Now, I've said all that because
I want you to understand. I want you to understand, when
we talk about the suffering and death of our Lord Jesus, when
we talk about him dying upon the cursed tree under the wrath
of God in our stead, Joe, he's in complete control. Don't pity him as a helpless
sacrifice. Don't pity him like the women
crying, he said, weep not for me, but weep for yourself. He's
not to be an object of pity. He's to be an object of reverence,
love him, reverence him, believe him. No pity, no pity. He died exactly as he determined
before the world was that he must die to satisfy the justice
of God as our substitute. And these wicked men did exactly
what God ordained from eternity they must do. And yet they did
it, Skip, with willing hearts, anxiously, with their own hands,
by their own wicked will, crucifying the Lord of glory. We read here, my tongue, verse
15, cleaveth to my jaws. In the 69th Psalm, the Savior
says, in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. John tells
us that the scriptures might be fulfilled. He saith, I thirst. And they filled a sponge with
vinegar and put it upon hyssop and put it to his mouth. In verse
14, Psalm 22. The Savior says, I'm poured out
like water. My heart is like wax. It's melted. In the 69th Psalm,
the word reproach is used six times. Six times, reproach, reproach,
reproach, reproach, reproach, reproach. He says, reproach hath
broken mine heart. The cause of his death is reproach. The Lord of glory bore our shame
and our dishonor. The bearing of our sins, the
hiding of his father's face on account of our sins is that which
broke his heart. Oh, what mercy, what love, what
grace. For even Christ, please not himself,
But as it is written, the reproaches of them that reproach thee, fellow
me." Merle Hart, we lived our lives
reproaching God. You who are yet. living in rebellion
to God who will not believe on the Son of God, you live reproaching
God. You may not take God's name in
vain as is commonly done in the streets, but your unbelief, your
rebellion is shoving God out of your face, reproaching God. He says, the reproaches of them
that reproach thee are fallen upon me. Jesus, when he cried with a loud
voice, yielded up the gross to behold, the veil of the temple
was rent in twain from top to bottom and the earth did quake
and the rocks rent. At the site of the things I've
just tried to describe to you, the things we've read about here
in the Psalms and in the Gospels, The earth trembled. And you said unmoved. The earth quaked and your heart
of stone is unmoved. When the soldiers came to break
the legs of those that hung up on the cross, They found that
the Lord Jesus was dead already, so they broke not his legs. But
one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith
came thereout blood and water. And he that saw it bare record,
and his record is true, and he knoweth that he sayeth true,
that you might believe." John said, I saw this. My record's
true. I've written it down here so
that you might know that it's true and might believe. Our Lord
Jesus didn't die from the soldier's spear. He didn't die from the
breaking of his legs. He didn't die from the agonies
of crucifixion. He died with a broken heart. You can speak to Joe later. He's the doctor. I'm not. But best I can grasp of that,
that's called by some kind of extreme, extreme mental anguish. Is that close? Extreme anguish. Anguish that defies explanation. Anguish that defies defining. Anguish just kills you. Our savior said, therefore, doth
my father love me because I lay down my life. I lay it down. that I might take
it again, that I might raise myself up again. This commandment
have I received of my father. I came as Jehovah's servant. I came as the shepherd of the
sheep. I came responsible under God
as God's own servant to save my people from their sins. And the only way this can be
done is if I bear their sin in my body on the tree until God's
own wrath and justice is fully satisfied so that God no longer
has reason to be angry with my people. And while it is the Lord
God who laid on him the iniquity of us all, his hand, for he is
himself the Lord God, takes the sword of justice and shoves it
into his own soul. He takes the cup of wrath and
drinks it with one tremendous draft of love and drinks damnation
dry. He lays down his life. He takes our sins to himself and dies in our state with a broken heart. Turn to
Psalm 51. Hold your hands here in Psalm
22. Turn to Psalm 51. Look at verse 17. The sacrifices of God are a broken
spirit. a broken and a contrite heart,
O God, thou wilt not despise." Brother Don, that's talking about
a sinner in repentance before God. Yes, it is. But the fact is, Lindsay Campbell,
your heart has never been so broken before God that you've
earned God's favor. And your heart may be broken
over many things. There is one man who, because
he became man for us, who is God Almighty in human flesh,
He became a man that he might have a body suitable to be a
sacrifice for sin, suffering all the wrath and fury of God's
wrath and justice in his body fully until justice was fully
spent upon him. One who became a man that he
might have a heart, that could be broken, and the breaking of
his heart unto death, being meritorious before God. And that man is the
God-man, Christ Jesus. Turn over to Hebrews chapter
10. Again, keep your mark, some kind of mark in Psalm 22. We'll
be back in a little bit. Hebrews chapter 10, verse five. Wherefore, when he cometh into
the world, he saith sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not.
That is God would never be satisfied with the sacrifices and offerings
made on Jewish altars in the old Testament. Even those that
he required by the law would never satisfy him. Let alone
the pretended sacrifices that you might make. let alone the
sacrifices that religious folks might concoct and work up in
their systems. No, God will never have any kind
of sacrifice to satisfy him, except what? And that's the sacrifice
of his son. Read on. But a body hast thou
prepared me. You wouldn't have these sacrifices,
but you prepared a body. A body suitable for sacrifice,
a body suitable for an oblation, a body suitable for an atonement. Verse nine, Hebrews 10. Then
said he, lo, I come to do thy will. Oh God. He taketh away
the first that he may establish the second. Watch this now. By
the witch will, by God's purpose and decree, we are sanctified,
made holy through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ one
time. One time. Once for all means
once with finality. One time. He possessed a human
heart. that might be broken so that
the way to the holiest is opened up for us through the broken
heart of God our Savior. No angel could do it. No man
could do it. But the God man has opened a
way for sinners like you and me to come to God. Look at verse
12, Hebrews 10. But this man after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of
God. He sat down in the Holy of Holies
on the right hand of God. He sat down because his work
was done. He sat down because there's nothing
else to do. He sat down because he cried,
it is finished. He sat down from henceforth expecting
to his enemies be made his footstool. How come? because God said to
him, ask of me and I'll give you the heathen for your inheritance.
Verse 14, for by one offering, by one offering, by his one sacrifice
for sin, he hath, what a word. You can't read that. Now, Brother
Dodd, how are you going to explain that? You just get another translation. You can't read that. By one offering,
he hath with finality perfected forever them that are sanctified. Perfected forever every one of
God's elect. Everyone set apart by God in
eternity. Everyone sanctified by his blood.
Verse 50. whereof the Holy Ghost also is
witness to us. That is, the Holy Spirit in his
word has given us witness of this. For after this, that he
had said before, this is the covenant that I will make with
them after those days, saith the Lord. I'll put my laws into
their hearts, and in their minds will I write them, and their
sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission
of these is, there is no more offering for sin. Having therefore,
brethren, boldness. Boldness. Boldness. Brother Mike Walker
gave an illustration Friday night when he was preaching at a crossway,
great message on the good shepherd, the great shepherd, chief shepherd.
He had his granddaughter with him, some other folks, and he
was studying Friday while they were out at swim pool swimming
and he had a sign on the door, do not disturb. And several folks
came back with his granddaughter. And he said, oh, he didn't want
to be disturbed. She said, that don't mean me. And just walked in. And he said,
she was right. It meant everybody but you. What's
that mean? Cocky, arrogant. No. No. I'm going in to see Grandpa.
It's all right for me to go see Grandpa. Anytime, anywhere, I'm
going in to see Grandpa. Hear me, children of God, that's
the word boldness here. I'm absolutely free to go to
God. But there are barriers. You can't
come. You can't come. It's against
the law for a sinner to come to God. Yeah, but that don't
mean me. That don't mean me. I'm washed
in the blood. Now, sinner, come with the blood
of Christ. And God Almighty welcomes you.
Read on. That we may have boldness to
enter in, into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new
and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the
veil, that is to say, his flesh. And having an high priest over
the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart and full
assurance of faith. How can you come to God? Fully
confident in full assurance of faith. Oh, I wish I could get,
oh, I wish I had, oh, I wish I could get that assurance folks
talk about. I wish I had that kind of peace and that comfort.
You have it just in measure as you look to Christ for everything. And just in measure as you look
to yourself for something you don't. just in measure as you
look for all holiness, all righteousness, all sanctification, all redemption,
all forgiveness, all acceptance with God in Christ alone. David, why shouldn't I come to
God? You reckon there's something about Christ God won't accept?
Is it possible that God's gonna turn him aside? Is it possible
that God will not accept his righteous obedience? Is it possible
that the Holy God will not accept his blood atonement? Is it possible
that the Holy God will charge him with some sin? Is it possible
that the Holy God will bar his son from his presence? Why, Brother
Don, that's stupid! It is equally stupid and blasphemous
to imagine that God will block away any sinner who comes to
him believing on his son alone. Now, as long as you try to trust
Christ in what you do, Christ in your feelings, Christ in your
works, Christ in your religion, Christ in your service, you can't
have any assurance, and I thank God you can't. And if you should
con yourself into believing you've got it, it'll just make you mean
and self-righteous and judgmental. We have full assurance of faith
through Christ the Lord. Look in Romans chapter 10. This
is the gospel for sinners. This is the power of God to salvation
to everyone that believeth. Let's begin at verse one, Romans
chapter 10. Brethren, my heart's desire and
prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear
them record. They have a zeal of God, but
not according to knowledge. Their zealous is all get out.
They're religious. Oh, they can quote the commandments. They'll carry them stamped on
their foreheads, written in phylacteries on the borders of their garments.
They have bumper stickers that say, smile if you love Jesus
or hulk if you love Jesus. They're religious as all get
out, but they're stumbling over it. They're stumbling over him
going to hell for a reason. It's not according to knowledge
for they being ignorant of God's righteousness. not ignorant of
the fact that God's righteous. Let's take, surveys are popular
these days on news programs, aren't they? Let's take a survey.
How many folks here have ever met someone who didn't believe
that God was righteous? Anybody? I've never met anybody
who didn't believe God's righteous. Well, what's this talking about?
They're ignorant of God's righteousness. They're ignorant of the fact
that Jesus Christ is the righteousness of God. They're ignorant of the
fact that his name is Jehovah Sikinya, the Lord our righteousness. They're ignorant of the fact
that the only righteousness God can or will has accepted is the
righteousness of Christ, our mediator, surety, and substitute. They're ignorant of God's righteousness,
so they keep on trying to establish their own. They've not submitted
themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness. He's the end of the law. He's
the terminating point of the law. The law requires righteousness. Christ came, that's the end.
He's fulfilled it. Read on. To everyone that believeth. For Moses, the law describes
the righteousness which is in the law. The righteousness you
read about in the law, this do and you shall live. That the
man which doeth those things shall live by them, verse six.
But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this side.
It's already done. It's already done. Say not in
thine heart who shall ascend into heaven, that is to bring
Christ down from above, or who shall descend into the deep,
that is to bring up Christ again from the dead. But what saith
it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart,
that is the word of faith which we preach, that if thou shalt
confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine
heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be
saved. The gospel declares all things
done by the obedience of one. And this is the power of God
to salvation. Now, back to our text. Psalm
22, verse 6. In order that he might fulfill
and bring in perfect righteousness. In order that he might make atonement
for our sins and satisfy justice on our behalf. The Lord Jesus
Christ, God's darling son, cries out here in Psalm 22, six, I
am a worm and no man. What can this mean? I am a worm
and no man. A worm. That is a repulsive thing. Most all little boys learn to
like to handle worms so they can torment little girls with
them. But the little boy had to be taught to learn to like
to handle the worms. Worms are repulsive. But we're
not talking about earthworms or grub worms. The word worm here quite literally might be translated
maggot. I've never seen one I wanted
to pick up. Have you? Maggot. I'm a worm. Man's a worm, but
I'm something less than a man. I'm a worm and no man. Weak, defenseless, filthy, utterly
repulsive worm. polite language. For the book of God declares,
he hath made him sin for us who knew no sin, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him. And when our sins made his, he
cries out, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? I look
back through the ages of humanity, and I can't find one of my fathers
who trusted you and you didn't hear. I can't find any sinner
in the pages of human history who called on God and you refused
to hear them. I can't find a man anywhere,
anywhere, who cried for God to help and God wouldn't help. But I'm a worm and no man. for I've been made sin that my
people might be made the righteousness of God in me." The word worm here might very
well refer to the crimson worm found among berries. And our Lord Jesus shed his precious
blood that he might make our crimson and scarlet sins as white
as snow. I'm told. I don't know. I'm not
a biologist, so I'll take other's word for it. When the female
of the scarlet worm is ready to give birth to her young, she
attaches her body to the stump of a tree, to the trunk of a
tree. She fixes herself to it firmly and permanently. When
she's about to give birth, she knows this is her last act. She's
attached firmly to the trunk of the tree. Permanently, she
stays there until she dies so that the eggs deposited beneath
her body are protected until the larvae are hatched and able
to enter into their own life cycle. As the mother dies, The
crimson fluid stains her body. It stains the tree to which she's
attached herself and stains all those who were born of her. They're all covered with the
crimson of their dying mother. They're all brought to life by
her death upon the tree. And the living ones live by feeding on the dead carcass
of their mother who gave them life. Our Lord Jesus said where
the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered and they'll
feed on him. He said, eat my flesh and drink
my blood, and so you have eternal life. You take his obedience
as your mediator and representative, his righteousness as your mediator
and representative, and his sin-atoning sacrifice, his blood, as your
justice satisfying substitute and live forever. That's called
faith in the son of God. It's called believing on the
Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, God help you then to believe
on his son. Amen.