to look at this psalm, sometimes
as we look in the Old Testament, and especially the psalms, it
is so evident who these psalms are talking about. Sometimes
it is difficult in the prophets to know and see Christ there,
but sometimes the Holy Spirit is so pleased to help us see
Christ in these Old Testament Scriptures, because he takes
these Old Testament Scriptures, and he quotes them for us in
the New Testament, and he applies them to Christ. Luther used to
take the Bible up when he was preaching, and he says, Here's
Christ. You want Christ? Here He is.
He didn't mean that these literal words in this book was Christ. But what he meant was, Christ
is contained in these words. This Bible, this scripture, is
concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. And we find that all through
the scriptures. He said, search the scriptures,
the Old Testament scriptures. In them you think you have eternal
life, and these are they that testify of me. And another place
he said, beginning at Moses, in all the prophets, he expounded
unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. The things concerning himself.
And then in another place he said this, These are the words
which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all
things must be fulfilled which are written in the law of Moses,
in the prophets, and in the Psalms concerning me." Those things
which are written concerning me. So the Old Testament writings
are concerning Christ. And I think if the Lord was pleased
to open our minds, open our understanding, as he did his apostles, we could
earnestly see Christ in the Old Testament. And you know, I'll
say this, that he is just as plain in the Old Testament as
he is in the New Testament, when the Holy Spirit gives us eyes
to see him. That's all those apostles had,
wasn't it? That's all the early church had until they began to
write these epistles. Then he opened their understanding
that they might understand the scriptures. And who did they
see there? They saw Christ. They saw Christ. Now, here in Psalms chapter 69,
I want to read you some of these places that makes it so evident
that this psalm is about the Lord Jesus Christ. And I want
to compare it with some Scriptures in the New Testament that shows
us plainly, this is speaking of Christ. Here in verse 4, they
that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my
head. Look over here in John chapter 15 in verse 24 and 25. This whole Psalm is 29. I want to show you these things.
I could quote them to you or read them. But in John chapter
15, I want you to read these and see them for yourself. Look
in John chapter 15, and look in verse 24 and verse 25. John
15, verse 24. If I had not done among them
the works which none other man did, they had not had sin. But now they have both seen and
hated me and my Father. But this comes to pass that the
word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, they
hated me without a cause. That's what Psalm 69 and verse
5, 4 said, wasn't it? They that hate me without a cause. Why did they hate Christ? They
didn't have a cause. They didn't have a just cause
to hate. Now, they could give you some reasons for hating Him.
They said, We don't believe He's the Son of God, and He claims
to be the Son of God, and we hate Him for it. He breaks the
Sabbath, and we hate Him for it. He don't keep our traditions,
and we hate Him for it. But you know they hated Him without
a good cause, without a just cause. And that was predicted.
Here in another place in Psalm 69, and he says here in verse
9, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. Here somebody is
saying, I am so zillious for God's house that it's just eating
me up. Everything I do, everything I
think, my motives, is to please God. It's just eating me up. That's why I live, that's why
I breathe, for God's glory. Who was it said that? Well, look
in John chapter 2 and look in verse 16 and 17. John 2 and verse 16 and verse
17. This is where the Lord Jesus
had gone in and cleared out the temple. And He said in verse
16, He said unto them that so does, take these things hence,
make not My Father's house, that house of merchandise. And boy,
He ran them out and cleansed that temple. And His disciples
remembered that it was written. And look at this, "...the zeal
of thine hand hath eaten me up." Psalm 69 and verse 9 is speaking
of Christ. And he says in the last part
of verse 9 of Psalm 69, "...and the reproaches of them that reproach
thee are fallen upon me." Look in Romans chapter 15 and look
in verses 2 and verse 3. Romans 15 and verse 2, look at
this. Let every one of us please his
neighbor for his good to edification. For even Christ pleased not himself,
but as it is written, the reproaches of them that reproach thee fell
upon me." That's Christ standing. That's Christ. There's no doubt
about it. This is applied to Him. One more scripture in Psalm
chapter 69, and look in verse 21. They gave me also gall for
my meat, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink." Now
look over in Matthew chapter 27. Look in Matthew chapter 27
and verse 33. Matthew 27 and verse 33. And when they came unto a place
called Golgotha, that is to say, the place of the skull, they
gave him vinegar to drink, mingled with God." That's Christ, isn't
it? There is no doubt in our minds
that as we read Psalms chapter 69, whatever we find here written
in this psalm, it's about Him. It's concerning Him. Now, in
the light of that, of all that we could see here, and this psalm
is full of hymns, I want us to see three things. And they're
found here beginning in verse 5, Psalm 69. I want us to see
three things, knowing now who this is speaking of. I want us
to see three simple things right quickly. O God, thou knowest
my foolishness. and my sins are not hid from
thee." The first thing that we see in this verse is Christ our
sacrifice. You say, Bruce, why do you say
that? Because it is evident from these scriptures that our sins
are upon the Lord Jesus Christ. He confesses them to be his own,
doesn't he? My foolishness, my sins are not
hid from thee. In the Old Testament law, when
they brought a sacrifice to atone for sin, the priest would put
his hands upon the head of the sacrifice and he would transfer
the sins unto that sacrifice. Then they would kill him. I want
you to see that. I want you to look over in Leviticus
chapter 16. Leviticus chapter 16. This is
the day of the atonement. Leviticus chapter 16. And begin
looking here in verse 21. Leviticus chapter 16, verse 21. Now look at this. I think when
we go to the Old Testament and we know that this is Christ,
what What plainly tells us in the New Testament, we can go
see it here in these pictures and shadows and times. And it
makes it more real to us. This is the day of the atonement
where they took these two goats. One, they slew him and offered
an atonement. And another one, they turned
him loose and let him go out in a place not inhabited. And
that was said to be a goat of atonement. But look here what
happened in verse 21. When Aaron brought this goat,
In verse 21, Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head
of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquity of
the children of Israel, and all the transgressions, and all their
sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him
away by the hand of a fit man unto the wilderness. and the
goat shall bear upon him all their iniquity unto a land not
inhabited, and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness."
Now, what does the Scripture teach us in the Old Testament
and in the New Testament concerning Christ bearing our sins? Doesn't it teach that our sins
were transferred to Him? What we see here in this picture
of Aaron putting his hands and transferring in tithe all the
iniquity of the children of Israel, that happened actually with the
Son of God. The Scripture teaches us that
all we like sheep have gone astray, and the Lord hath laid on him
the iniquity of us all. And the New Testament said Christ
was once offered to bear the sins of many. That's the same
word that's used here when Aaron put the iniquities of Israel
and that goat bear those sins into land that's not inhabited. And Peter said Christ bear our
sins in His own body upon the tree. And when we come here to
the book of Psalms, We read this very thing, that Christ, our
sacrifice, had our sins upon Him. I want you to turn to one
more place, over in Leviticus chapter 1. Look here at the order of how
these sacrifices were offered. You see about seven things here
concerning these sacrifices. We see the Lord Jesus Christ
here. He says you're in Leviticus chapter 1, and look here in verse
1. Look at these things. The Lord
called unto Moses, and spake unto him out of the tabernacle
of the congregation. And this is what he said, Speaking
to the children of Israel, and saying to them, If any man of
you bring an offering unto the Lord, you shall bring your offering
of the cattle, even of the herd, or of the flock." And the first
thing, if this offering be a burnt sacrifice, if it was a sacrifice,
they brought sacrifices. Number one, it had to be a sacrifice. If you bring it out of the herd,
look at this, the sacrifice, let him offer a male without
blemish. He got a male sacrifice. He's
without blemish. Thirdly, he shall offer him of
his own voluntary will. Now, Brother Glenn spoke of this
this morning, didn't he? Remember what he said? Christ
gave up the ghost? Here Christ is. Nobody forced
Him to come. Nobody forced Him to honor the
law. Nobody forced Him to the cross.
And they never killed Him. He gave himself voluntarily. That's how it had to be when
a man brought a sacrifice. If it was acceptable to God,
it couldn't be forced. It had to be voluntary. And he
shall bring him at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation
before the Lord. And look at this, he shall put
his hand upon the head of the burnt offering. Now why did they
do that? We found out in Leviticus 16,
didn't we? Transfer of sins. Transfer of sins. When you brought
a sacrifice to atone for your sins, you had to lay your hand
upon his head. If you didn't, you know what
you were denying? That you had any sin to transfer.
You say, and I have no sin. Then don't bring the sacrifice.
Because this is a sacrifice to atone for sin. So they laid their
hands upon the head of that sacrifice. The sin was transferred to it.
And look at this. And it shall be accepted for
him to make an atonement for him. Transfer of sin. In verse 5, he shall kill the
bullock. Before the Lord. It always had to take place before
the Lord. And the priest Aaron's son shall
bring the blood and sprinkle the blood round about upon the
altar that is by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
And he shall fray the burnt offering, and cut it into his pieces. And
the sons of Aaron the priests shall put fire upon the altar,
they lay the wood in order upon the fire. And the priest Aaron's
sons shall lay the parts, the head and the fat in order upon
the wood that is on the fire which is upon the altar. And
his inwards and his legs shall be washed in water, and the priests
shall burn all on the altar to be a burnt sacrifice, and that
altar made by fire of a sweet savor unto the Lord. They burned it all upon the altar. Christ gave Himself, all of Himself. But first, what happened? He
took our sins. He burned our sins in His own
body upon the tree. And that leads us to the second
thing that I want to see here also in verse 5. Thou hast known
my foolishness, and my sin is ever before thee. Who is this speaking? This is
Christ. How could He say, My sins? Because
when the Father put our sins upon Him, Now as our high priest
representing us before the Father, he confesses these sins to be
his own. Not that he committed one of
them, but he took our sins and made them his own, just as though
he had committed these sins himself. But these sins being put on him
of God the Father, he doesn't refuse them. He doesn't deny
them, but He accepts them as if He Himself had committed them,
and He owns them as His own, even feels the guilt of them.
You look this word up, my sins, my sins, and that sins is guiltiness. My guiltiness, my guiltiness
is ever before me. You know, if you had some way,
when you had broken the law, and I could take your punishment
for it, I could go down to court and say, Your Honor, I'm here
to accept full responsibility for this awful crime that Glenn
Whitehead has done. And whatever punishment belongs
to him, I'll pay it to this court. You just tell me what it is and
I'll pay it. I may accept the responsibility and pay Glenn's
debt in his stead, but I tell you one thing I cannot take,
and that's the guilt. Because Glenn, I didn't do it,
you did. But here the Lord Jesus, as our high priest, when He says,
My sins, He fills the guilt of them. He fills the shame of them
as though He had did them Himself. Aren't you thankful for that,
brothers and sisters? He never lessened them. He never
lessened them. He called them what they were,
sin. He never hid them. He never hid
them. If He hid them where God couldn't
see them, they still wouldn't be people. But He owns them to
be what they are, sin. Look what he says back in our
text over in Psalm 69. Look what he says about it. Here in verse 20, this shows
us in these other verses in this psalm that the Lord Jesus did
indeed take our sins and that He was filling the weight of
them, the guilt of them. Look what he says here in verse
20. Reproach hath broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness, full
of heaviness. Sin, brothers and sisters, is
a heavy thing. And when it was put upon the
Lord Jesus, His soul became heavy with it. Look what it did to
the angels in heaven, those holy angels. As far as we know, they
sinned one time, and look what sin did to them. It was so heavy
it crushed them down into hell itself. Look what it did to holy
Adam and Eve. Crushed their bodies down in
the dust. That's what sin will do. It's
a heavy thing. Oh, the Lord Jesus said, My soul
is exceeding heavy and sorrowful. What was going on? Our Father. Our Father was putting our iniquities
upon Him. And you know this is not the
only place. You hold Psalm 69 there, and look over to your
left in Psalms Chapter 40. This is not the only place it
talks about the Lord Jesus having our sins upon Him. Here in Psalms
Chapter 40, look at this. Look at Psalm 40. We know this
is speaking to the Lord Jesus because here in verse 6, look
at this, "...sacrifice and offerings thou didst not desire." My ears
hast thou opened, burnt offerings and sin offerings thou didst
not require. Then said I, Lo, I come in the
volume of the book. It is written of me. I delight,
O God, to do thy will." Where do we find that in the New Testament?
Hebrews chapter 10. And who's it talking about? Christ,
isn't it? That's Jesus Christ. In the volume
of the book, it's written of me. Well, look what's said of
Him here in verse 12. Here's what the Lord Jesus says.
Enumerable evils have compassed me about. Mine iniquities have
taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up. They are
more than the hairs of mine head, therefore my heart felleth me."
He calls these iniquities His. Because just as that scapegoat
in Titus bore all the iniquities of the children of Israel out
into land not inhabited, the Lord Jesus Christ took our iniquities
and He put them away by the sacrifice of Himself. They were His. They were His. One may say, Bruce, I'll never
believe. that Jesus Christ so took my
sins to call them his own and put them away by his death. I'll never believe that. I'll
never believe that my sin became his. Then how in the world are we
going to believe that his righteousness becomes ours? There has to be a total change. He has to restore that which
He took not away. What did Adam take away? Our
standing with God. Now Jesus Christ has to restore
that. He has to give us a standing
with God. A righteous standing. But to
do that, He's got to take what we took away. And what was it?
Righteousness. He's got to take and bear that.
And what is it? Sin. There has to be a total
exchange. He has to take our sins. We have
to take His righteousness. If He doesn't take our sins,
how can we take His righteousness? But somebody will say, Bruce,
I don't see how you can call them His. He calls them His. And he turns right around, and
he tells us that we can call His righteousness ours. Listen to Isaiah 54, 17. No weapon that is farmed against
you shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against
you, you shall condemn it in the judgment. This is the heritage
of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of
me, saith the Lord." Their righteousness? It's of me. I've worked it out. It's mine, but I give it to them,
and they can call it theirs. I took their sin and called it
mine. Now I'm giving my righteousness
to them, and they can call it theirs. Do you remember when
the Lord was telling us about that little baby in Ezekiel 16? And he said, I passed by him
and he was in your blood, and I spoke to you and gave you life,
and I washed you from your pollution, and I clothed your nakedness,
I spread my skirt over you and clothed your nakedness, and I
put this beautiful necklace and I put earrings on you. And he
said, you were perfect through my coming. You were perfect through
my... He looks at her! And he says,
you're perfect! You're beautiful! And she's allowed
to say that and think that about herself. Because her beauty and
her comelessness is not anything that she's worked at. It's not
anything that she's married in. It's what Christ has put upon
her. But Glenn, it's hers! It's hers! And he says, you call it yours.
But first, I had to take your filth. in your iniquities, in
your sin, and call them My own. I love that exchange, don't you?
I love that. My sin. My sin. I tell you what,
if He refuses them, then God has to put them back on us. And He can't lessen them, can
He? Because He's just. He's got to look at them as they
are. And here he took them, and before his Father in heaven,
he said, Father, they're mine. They're mine. All right then.
All right then, Son of God. You deal with them. You're responsible
for them now. You call them yours. Then you
deal with them. Oh, aren't you thankful then?
Aren't you thankful that he took them and made them his own and
stood responsible for them? Oh, that's why the gospel is
good news. That's why it's good news. Somebody
else who was able and full of merit came and took this from
us and made them his own. And he did indeed answer for
them. He did indeed answer to God.
Oh, God, he says, you know my foolishness. My sins are not
hid from you. And God said, no, they're not.
And I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to punish you
for them. I'm going to turn My back upon you. I'm going to put
you in the mare clay where there's no standing. All the billows
of My wrath is going over you. You're going to find yourself
in the floods of great waters." And God punished him for our
sins. But he knew he was going to.
He knew when he said, these are my sins, look upon them, he knew
what was coming. That's why his sweat became blood
in the garden. He knew it. He knew it. Psalm
69, lastly. The Lord Jesus, we see Him as
our sacrifice because our sins have been transferred to Him.
Here we see Him as our High Priest because as our High Priest, He
owns our sins. He confesses them before the
Father. And now, in verses 6 and verse 7, we see Him as our Mediator
pleading His own merits to deliver us. Look what he says. He first says there in verse
5, You know my foolishness, my sin. And now he says, Let not
them that wait on thee, O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed for
my sake, because of me. Let not those that seek thee
be confused and confounded and disgraced for my sake, O God
of Israel, because for thy sake I bore this reproach, and shame
covered my face." What's he pleading? He's pleading himself and his
own works. He says, look at the shame I
bore. Glenn, you talked about it just
two or three weeks ago or four, about the cross and how he stood
there in shame. Remember that? Hebrews 12 too.
He despised the shame. Not just his physical meekness,
but what the sin brings. Shame. Why did Adam hide? He was not only afraid, he was
ashamed. He was naked. What does sin do? It exposes our nakedness before
God. That's why Daniel said, when
those lost people will be raised from the dust of the earth, they'll
come forth with shame and everlasting contempt. Sin makes us ashamed. And the Lord Jesus said, Father,
I bore it. You know I bore it. I bore it. Now, don't let them bury it. Now, You save them from it. See
what He's doing? Our Mediator. We come to God
through Him. And what does He do? He pleads
Himself to the Father. He pleads for us. And He brings
us from our lost condition to God. through and out of his own
blessed marriage. Somebody might say, Bruce, you're
telling me that Christ did everything? He did everything? You don't find David here doing
a thing, do you? He wrote this psalm. And it's almost like he's
just standing there, looking by the eye of faith, and hearing
every word that's said. And seeing how all this is going
to transpire. He sees Christ's sacrifice with
His sins upon Him. He hears Christ, the High Priest,
confess and own those sins before God. And now, he hears by this
ear of faith, the Lord Jesus says, Father, don't let David
be ashamed. for my sake. Don't condemn Him
for my sake. Justify Him. Clothe Him for my
sake. And what's David doing? Oh, he's
just gazing with the eye of faith upon it all. I've had people tell me this
very thing. You expect me to believe that
Christ did all and weren't to do nothing? That would cause
me to just turn loose the reins of my life to live like the devil.
Well, the first thing I'll say about that is this. Christ was
pleased to do all. Nobody forced Him to do it. And
there's no other way we can be saved but Him doing all for us. And if He doesn't do all, He
does nothing, because He won't be part of a Savior. He'll be
all or nothing of all. And all He asks of you and all
He asks of me, brothers and sisters, and dear lost friend, is this.
Believe Him. Just believe Him. Just stand
here and believe in amazement that He's done it all. And I tell you, when you believe
it, you'll be the gladdest sinner that this world has ever known.
You won't be proud. You won't be arrogant. You won't
see how much you can get away with. Oh, this will humble your
heart. You'll live in gratitude to Him.
And as you see more and more that He's done it all, your heart
will just be fuller and fuller of praise and honor and glory
to Him. And you'll go to Him as David
did. And you'll say, nod unto Me, O Lord. Nod unto Me. But
unto Thy Name give glory. With thy mercy and by thy truth.
Is that what David said here in verse 32? The humble shall
see this. See what? Just what we've been
talking about. The humble. Those who have been
humble in their spirit. Those who have thought, surely
my sins are going to destroy me. God's going to condemn me
and justly so. And they've been humble. They've
been made poor in spirit. But now the humble shall see
this, and look, and they shall be glad, and their hearts shall
rejoice, and they shall live that seek
God through Christ. This is about Christ. And I would
say, not only the Psalms, but if we went to the prophets, And
the Lord Jesus was pleased to open our understanding that we'd
see Christ everywhere. We'd see Him everywhere. God
bless this Word. Let's pray.