Turn in your Bibles for a moment
to Luke chapter 24. Luke chapter 24. When our Lord appeared to his disciples
in Luke 24 verse 44, he said to them, These are the words which I spake
unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be
fulfilled which were written," now listen, in the Law of Moses,
that's the first five books of the Bible, in the prophets, that's
all the prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, keep naming them, And in the
Psalms. In the Psalms concerning me. That's what the Psalms are all
about. Concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's where I'm
going tonight for our message. To the book of Psalms. Psalm
40. Psalm chapter 40. Now I know, and you know, this
is a Psalm of David, as I said this morning when I preached
from Psalm 19. This is a Psalm of David. God
gave it to him, but God gave it to him in words which he felt,
in words which he experienced, in words which he lived until
God called him home. God used him to write most of
the Psalms. But we must remember, as we were
talking a moment ago, that the Psalms picture Christ. They preach Christ. They set
forth the Lord Jesus Christ. They're Messianic Psalms. That's
what we're talking about. Messianic Psalms. These are the
words of Jesus Christ himself. Look down here at verses six
through eight. This is the Lord speaking, now
David talking up here, and then now Christ is speaking here. And when Christ speaks, David
speaks, and when David speaks, Christ preaches. He says in verse
six, sacrifice an offering thou didst not desire. Mine ears hast
thou opened. Burnt offerings and sin offerings
hast thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I come, and
the volume of the book is written of me. This is Christ. I delight
to do thy will. O my God, yea, thy law is within
my heart. So this is David's psalm. This is Christ speaking to us. And this is my psalm. I claim
this psalm as my own. I need this psalm. I used this
just a few days ago in preaching to the group at home. This is
a time of great trouble for many of God's people. Great and serious
trouble, conflict. And this psalm meets my need
at this particular time. This is my psalm. And I call
this message, I call this message a psalm of praise for a time
of trouble. Now let's look at it, starting
with verse 1. David says here, I waited patiently for the Lord,
and He inclined unto me and heard my cry. I waited patiently for
the Lord. Why shouldn't I wait for the
Lord? Why should it be difficult for me to wait on God? He is the Lord, you know. He's
the Lord, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, and He decrees and
designs and does everything for His glory and my good. Why shouldn't
I wait on the Lord? Be still and know that I'm God. Just wait. Secondly, why not
wait? He doesn't owe me anything. God
doesn't owe me anything. It's a marvel that He's mindful
of me. So why shouldn't I be still and wait on the Lord? And
thirdly, why not wait? He is all wise and He does nothing
except for the good of His people and the glory of His name. He's
all wise. God is all wisdom. And I need
to be still and wait on Him. And then, why not wait on the
Lord? No man has ever waited on God
in vain. David said that here. He said,
I waited patiently, patiently on the Lord, and He inclined
unto me. He turned His ear my way. He
heard my cry, and He spoke to meet my need. You know, the will
to wait on God, Now, this is not easy to learn, and I don't
guess we ever learn it like we ought to. But the will to wait
patiently on the Lord depends on two things. Two things. Number one, it depends on who
He is and who I think I am. The will to wait upon God depends
on two things. For me to discover who he is,
he's worth waiting on. And I'm not. How long will a
beggar wait outside the door when he knows without a doubt
that only Joseph can open the storehouse? He'll wait a long
time, won't he? If he knows that only Joseph
can open the storehouse. So when will God hear my prayer? When will He incline His ear? When will He hear me and deal
with this conflict and this trial? Well, I'll give you four things.
Think about this. When will God incline His ear
and hear me and meet my need? when the trial has accomplished
its purpose. That's what he says over there
in the book of James. Let patience have its perfect
work. You know, every time we run into
a conflict, every time we run into a problem, every time we
have a difficult situation, we say, Lord, solve this for me
now, solve this. I want you to answer me. to take
care of this business. But he will when the child has
accomplished his purpose. And he won't until he does. It
may take a year, two years, five years. It may take a long time. But God will deal with it when
he has accomplished his purpose for that child. God will hear our cry and God
will deal with our conflict and problems when we have been sufficiently
shut up to believing on God. If any man lack wisdom, let him
ask of God, but let him ask in faith, nothing wavering, that
patience have its perfect work. And then when God Almighty enables
you to believe Him, to rest in Him, to trust in Him, that's
when He'll incline His ear and meet my need. And thirdly, the
Lord will incline His ear and meet my need when He can get
all the glory. What was it Gideon said? I don't
have enough men. And the Lord said, you've got
too many. You've got too many. Because you've got so many, I
don't get the glory. So when the Lord can get the
glory and accomplish His purpose for our good and His glory, that's
when He'll entwine His ear and hear our prayer. And then here's
the fourth thing. Now think about this. It's good for me that I've been
afflicted, that I might learn His statutes. How long do you
take me to learn it? Sometimes it takes me a long
time. It takes me a lifetime. It took me a lifetime. I wish
I had a little longer to work it out, but He'll do it in His
own good time. When the trial has accomplished
its purpose, when we have been sufficiently shut up to faith,
when the Lord can get all the glory, And listen to this, when
God's purpose is fulfilled for all who are involved in this
conflict, not just me. He said, you ask, you pray and
you ask of this, you ask and consume it on your own lust.
You want the problem to be solved for you, but what about everybody
else? The other people who are involved
in this conflict, not just for one, But there are many people
involved in this. And when God's purpose is fulfilled
for all who are involved in whatever the conflict is, whatever the
trouble is, or whatever the issue is, when God is pleased to work
it out for the glory of all involved, he'll hear our prayer. No man
has ever, ever waited on God patiently without God hearing. I waited patiently for the Lord.
He did incline His ears. And He finally did hear my prayer. That's just cornbread tater roll
preaching, but that's just good preaching. That's when God will
incline His ears. All right, look at verse 2. He
brought me up also out of a horrible pit. out of the miry clay and
set my feet on a rock and established my going. The Lord has heard
me many times. Almost 80 years old, been in
the ministry 50 some odd years, but the Lord has heard my prayer
and met my need and Almighty God has blessed me abundantly,
more than I could ever say. He has blessed me. He has brought
me up. That's to say, first of all,
He brought me up out of the horrible pit of sin. By one man, sin entered
this world, and death by sin, and death passed upon all men.
I was one of them. And the Lord came and lifted
me up, up out of a horrible pit of sin. And Adam would die, and
God lifted us up. washed us, gave us a new name. And then He lifted me from the
horrible pit of free willism, false religion. He lifted me
up from the pit of sin, and then for a while I was in false religion,
free willism. And God lifted me out of that.
I'm so thankful that in 1950, when I was 24 years of age and
been in the ministry, pastor of a church two and a half years,
but didn't know the gospel. And he lifted me up out of that
horrible pit. He came where I was, became what
I was and am, paid the debt and brought me out. Aren't you glad
he didn't leave you in the pit of free willism? Paul knows about
that. I know about that. Some of you
know about that. He lifted me up. And then he
lifted me out of the horrible pit of self-righteousness. Every
one of us have played with a certain amount of that for a long, long
time. And he lifted me out of the pit of self-righteousness,
going about to establish a righteousness of our own. And he lifted me
up. Lifted me up. And then look at this, verse
2, and He brought me up out of a horrible pit and out of the
miry clay, slippery places. We couldn't stand. We're not
settled. Unsure, slippery places. He lifted
me out of the miry clay and set my feet on a rock, on the rock
Christ Jesus, and established my glory. All
my feet are on the rock, and I shall not be moved. One old
writer said, the winds may blow, the rain may fall, the floods
may rise and beat on my house, my knees will shake, my arms
will grow weak and weary, my mind's not always clear, but
my feet are solid on the rock, Christ Jesus. He brought me up
out of a horrible pit, set my feet on the rock Christ Jesus,
established my goings. I told them that when I was in
the Navy and on a ship for a good while, and we used to, with anchor,
You don't take the ship out of the water and put it in the dry
dock. Wherever you go, you go with it. They just, on the fantail
back there, they drop an anchor. And the anchor, big, heavy anchor,
goes way down on the chain, and it reaches a rock. And it stands
established on the rock. Now that old ship, that anchor's
on the back, but that ship's long. And the wind will blow
it. Tides will move it. And it'll
turn this way. And it'll turn that way. It may
face east. It may face west. It may face
north. It may face south. It turns every
which way. But it's established on that
rock. And it'll never move. And that's
the way we are. We go through a lot of conflict
and troubles and sorrows and all these things and face different
directions. But we're established on the
rock. And that's what this man is saying. The wind will blow
and it will. And the rain will fall. Put that song in there.
Each life a little rain is going to fall. A whole lot of rain
sometime. The floods will rise and beat on that house. My knees
will shake. My arms will grow weak. My mind
is not always clear, but my feet are on Christ. A solid rock. chief cornerstone,
a triad rock, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now watch this next verse,
verse 3. And He hath put a new song in
my mouth, a new song, a new song in my mouth, even praise to our
God. A song has words. A song has
words. A song praises God. A song's
not idle chatter. A song's just not empty shouting. A song is not just strange behavior. A song is not hand-waving. A
song is praise to God. That's what a song is. Let every
man that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. It's a
new song. It's a new song. What does a
new song say? It's a covenant, a new covenant
in Christ Jesus. It's a new way through the Bible,
through His blood. It's a new creation in Christ
Jesus. It's a song of a new heaven and
a new earth. Let's turn to Revelation chapter
5 and read about that new song. Revelation chapter 5. Verse 9-12. Listen to this. Revelation 5,
verse 9-12. And they sung a new song, saving. See, a song has words. They sung
a new song, saving. Thou art worthy to take the book,
and to open the seals thereof. For thou was slain, and hast
redeemed us to God, thy blood out of every kindred, tongue,
and people, and nation. Thou hast made us unto our God
a royal priesthood." You know, they had kings in the Old Testament,
they had priests, but they didn't have the same office as a king
or there was a priest. But a king-priest, that's what
he's made us, a royal priesthood. He hath made us kings and priests
unto our God, and we shall reign upon this earth." Oh my! He hath put a new song in my
mouth, even praise to our God, and many shall see it and be
glad and trust in the Lord. Now look at verse four. Blessed
is the man that maketh the Lord his trust. I think I told you
one time about the time that my dad came to know the Lord
and God began working in his life. He wasn't interested in
the Gospel the first 40 years of his life, but he became interested
and the Lord opened his heart And I believe he revealed the
Gospel to him. But he gave me a Bible. He gave
me a Bible when I was 10, 11, 12 years old. And he marked the
Scripture in that Bible in John 5, verse 24. He underlined that
Scripture and gave me that Bible and said, you believe that and
you'll be alright. And this is what John 5, verse
24 said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whomsoever you are,
he that heareth my word, he that heareth my word and believes
on him that sent me, hath everlasting life." Right there. He that heareth
my word and believes it, hath, right there, hath everlasting
life, and shall not come into condemnation, never. But he's
already passed from death to life. That's so. That's so. And another, I pick
up these things from different preachers. This preacher said,
I may be as poor as Lazarus. I may be as afflicted as Job. I may be as lonely as Elijah. I may be as helpless as Jonah
and the whale. I may be as hated as the Apostle
Paul. Let God be found. Who can be
against me? That's just so. He that heareth
my word, and believes it, hath everlasting life, and shall never
condemn in the condemnation, but is perished from the death
of the life. Look at verse four again. Blessed
is that man, blessed is that man that maketh the Lord his
trust. Blessed is that man who will
not cringe before the world. Blessed is that man who will
not cater to the world, to the proud, to the rich, to the powerful. Blessed is that man who will
not lie nor deny God's truth. Blessed is that man who respects
not the proud and will not turn aside to lies. I read one time
Some of these old Jewish writers, they said this about the men
of David's army. They said, the mighty men of
David's army carried their shields with great honor and pride. They
fought that way. They didn't fight with guns,
but they fought with shields and swords and spears. And they carried their shields.
with great honor and pride. Their shields were stamped with
the family crest and the family tribe and colors. And they had
a Savior. When those men went to battle,
carry your shield with honor and bravery in victory. Honor be carried home on your
shield. But don't And don't cast it aside,
and don't sell out to the enemies, and never turn aside to life. What is that shield? It's the
Word of God. Carry that shield with pride. Blessed is that man, oh, blessed
is that man who makes the Lord his trust. Never cringes before
the world, never caters to the proud and profane, and will not
lie. or deny the truth. Blessed is
that man that maketh the Lord his trust, and respects not the
proud, nor turneth aside to lie. Now listen, listen very carefully
right here. Verse five, listen to this. Many,
O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done. Many
are thy wonderful works of creation, Providence, the nation Israel,
the Exodus, all of the miracles of the Old Testament. Many, O
Lord, are Thy wonderful works which Thou hast done. And many,
O Lord, are Thy thoughts to us-worthy, and they cannot be reckoned up
in order unto Thee. If I would desire to speak of
them, there more than can be numbered. But what is God's greatest
work? What is God's greatest thought
toward us? His greatest works and his greatest
thought toward us? Here it is in that next verse,
verse six. Here it is. God's greatest glory,
God's greatest work is the incarnation of Jesus Christ. Sacrifice and
offering thou didst not desire. Mine ears hast thou didst. Let me stop right there. And
I'm sure Brother Todd dealt with this before. Let's deal with
it over again. Back in the days of Israel, when
they had, a man was sold into slavery. If he had debts he couldn't
pay for it, or couldn't, shouldn't satisfy, and other things. But
he was, he went into slavery to pay off his debts. to serve
as a slave, an Israel slave. And he served for seven years.
But at the end of that seven years, he was free. They set
him free. Go your way. You're free. Your
debts paid. But if a man says, I love my
master. I love my master. I love my master's
family. The only freedom I want is to
serve Him. So they take that person, that
slave, down to the door of the tabernacle, the temple, or wherever,
and bore his ear. Mine ear hast thou digged. And he bore his ear. And he'd
be from that moment a bondslave, a willing, loving, That's what it is. And that's
what Christ, our Lord, is saying here. Sacrifice and offering. Burn offerings. Offering for
sin. All of these rituals and offerings
and baptisms, thou hast not desired. God had no pleasure in these
things, but He opened my ears. He made me the servant of Christ
Jesus. Took upon Himself our sinful
flesh and became a servant. Dig my ears. My ears hast thou
opened. Burnt offerings in sin, offerings
thou hast not required. Then said I, Lo, I come, I come
in the volume of the book. It's written of me. I delight. A slave does the will of his
master because he has to. A slave obeys his master because
he has to. But a bond slave obeys his master
because he wants to. That's the whole, that's the
whole story. I delight to do thy will, O my
God, thy law is within my heart. That's where God puts his law
in the believer, in his mind to think upon it, in his heart
to love the will of his master. I want you to turn to Hebrews
10 for a moment. Hebrews chapter 10, verse 5 through
14. Hebrews 10. This is the same
thing here that we're talking about right here. You see, you've
got the Old Testament, David writing here in Christ speaking,
and here Paul is writing in Christ speaking. Same message. All right,
look at Hebrews 10. Verse 5, Wherefore, when he cometh
into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not,
but a body hast thou prepared me. In burnt offerings and sacrifice
for sin thou hast never had any pleasure. These are types. You
can't have pleasure in a picture. You have pleasure in a person.
You can't have pleasure in a type. You have pleasure in the person,
Christ Jesus. You don't have pleasure in a
prophecy. You have pleasure in a promise
of the living Lord. God never had any pleasure in
these things. They were served as tithes. In
verse 6, it says, "...in burnt offerings and sacrifice." Read verse 5, Wherefore, when
he cometh into the world, he hath sacrificed an offering thou
wouldst not, but a body hast thou prepared me in burnt offerings
and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I,
Lo, I come in the volume of the book, it is written of me, to
do thy will, O my God. Above, when he saith sacrifice
and offering and burnt offerings for sin, neither had any pleasure
therein which are offered by the Lord." What did give God
pleasure? Not these things. But when His
Son stood in the River Jordan and was revealed, the Holy Spirit
descended upon Him in the form of a dove, and God Almighty spoke
from heaven, this is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. God found pleasure in him. He had pleasure in him. Just
read that next verse. Verse 9. Hebrews 10. Then shall I, lo, I come to do
thy will, O God. He taketh away the first. The
first what? The first sacrifices? Well, go
back here. The first Adam. the first Passover lamb, the first, all
of these things that were first, the first tabernacle, our first
nature. He takes away the first and establishes
the second, which is Christ. Verse 10, by the rich will, we're
sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once
for all. And every priest standeth daily,
ministering, offering, offering and ministering, oftentimes the
same sacrifices which can never take away sin. But this man,
after he had offered one sacrifice for sin forever, sat down on
the right hand of God, from henceforth expecting that his enemies be
made his footstool, for by one offering he hath perfected forever
them that are sanctified. That's God's greatest work. That's
the work in which God has great pleasure in the person of His
Son, in the person of His Son. All right, I'm going to deal
with verse 10 a minute, verse 9 and 10, and then I'll close
my message. He said there in verse 8, I delight
to do thy will, O my God, thy law is within my heart. I have preached righteousness. Turn with me to Romans 3 verse
25. Christ said, I preach righteousness. In Romans chapter 3 verse 25,
here it is right here. Whom God has set forth to be
a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness. I have preached righteousness.
For the remission of sins and a pass for through the forbearance
of God, to declare, I say at this time, God's righteousness,
that he might be just, and to justify him that believeth on
Jesus. I preach righteousness. I have
not refrained my lips, O God, thou knowest. Verse 10, I have
not hid thy righteousness in my heart. I have not hid thy
faithfulness. I have not hid thy salvation.
I have not concealed thy lovingkindness, and I have not hid thy truth."
How in the world would a person hide God's righteousness? How in the world would a person
hide God's faithfulness, God's salvation, God's lovingkindness,
and God's truth? I found a little help on that.
Our Lord says, I have not hid your righteousness. I've not
hid your salvation and hid your truth. Number one, to hide God's
truth is to conceal portions of it. As Paul said, you remember,
I kept back nothing profitable to you. And that's how you can
hide God's truth from the congregation. Keep back portions of it that
people object to or that people don't care for. Christ said,
I didn't hide your righteousness, I proclaimed it. Secondly, to
hide the truth is to entangle it with human wisdom. That's
what the Apostle Paul talked about, human wisdom. To hide the truth of God, thirdly,
is to cover it with flowery rhetoric and enticing words. To hide God's
truth is to preach one truth at the expense of another, or
in the place of another. And here's the fifth reason,
that truth sometimes is hidden. To hide the truth is to give
forth the letter without love. It's to set forth facts without
grace, doctrine without mercy. That's to hide it. I found this
illustration one time that I think what David is writing here and
what our Lord is saying. A great artist will labor alone
in a studio, working on life's masterpiece. He has a life's
masterpiece. You keep it covered. He'll allow
no one to see it until he finishes. And our Lord's purpose and our
Lord's kingdom is hidden from all human logic and knowledge,
but not from him. The true church is being fashioned
in secret. The work is hidden from human
eyes. And no one can say, lo here,
lo there. And when his bride is arrayed
in fine linen, clean and white, And God says, blessed are they
that are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. Blessed are
they which are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb.
Then all creation is going to view God's glorious, great masterpiece
with one cry in unison, worthy is the Lamb. Worthy is the Lamb. All right, I want us to close
this message tonight with singing a hymn. Let's sing number 272. 272. On Christ the solid rock
I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. Number 272.