Psalm 22. This psalm, as I told
you Wednesday night, is beyond all others the psalm of the cross. And many of the old writers believed
that the words of this psalm were actually spoken by our Lord
when he was crucified on the cross. Many of the writers from
the Treasure of David all agree that they believe that these
are the words that Christ literally spoke on the cross, beginning
with my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" And ending with these words
in the last verse, they shall come and shall declare his righteousness
unto a people that shall be born, that God Almighty has done this. I want to read the first ten
verses. from which I preached Wednesday
night. And then I want to begin my message with verse 11, where
we left off Wednesday night. And I'll tell you, we need something
left off. As Moses said, we should put
off or leave off our shoes from our feet, as Moses did at the
burning bush. when the Lord spoke to him and
said, Moses, you're on holy ground. And that's where I am this morning,
very fearful, very fearful, because this is indeed holy ground. All right, let's read these first
ten verses. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping
me, and from the words of my Lord? O my God, I cry unto thee
in the daytime, but thou hearest not. And in the night season,
and I am not silent, but thou art holy. That's why all this
is done, because God is holy. God is holy. Everything God does,
he must do as a holy God. And that's the reason he forsook
his son, because he was made sin for us. But thou art holy,
O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel, thou who dwellest
in the secret place. Our fathers, Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, trusted in thee. They trusted. Thou didst deliver
them. They cried unto thee, and were
delivered. They trusted in thee, and they
were not put to shame. But I, I'm a worm. I'm no man. I'm a reproach of
men. I'm despised of the people. that see me, delight me to scorn. They shoot out the lip, and they
shake their heads, saying, He trusted on the Lord that he would
deliver him. Let him deliver him, seeing he
delighteth in him. But thou art he that took me
out of the womb. Thou didst make me whole when
I was on my mother's breast. I was cast upon thee from the
womb. and thou art my God from my mother's
belly now be not far from me for trouble is near and there's
no one to help the father who was so near to the Savior took
him out of the womb a body hast thou prepared me thou art my
God from my mother's belly the lamb slain from the foundation
of the world, the virgin son. But now God's presence is literally
withdrawn. God has forsaken him and he's
filled with sorrow. And he says trouble's near. Trouble
is near. What is this trouble? Satan is
marching with principalities and powers upon him. His own
disciples have forsaken him and fled, and all the sins of all
his people are laid on him, and the sword of God's justice is
awakened against my fellow, and there's none to help. There's
none to help. Do you understand what he's saying?
God has forsaken me, and every human being has forsaken me,
and there's no one to help. The high priest must go unto
the holy of holies with the blood alone. No one can be around anywhere
when he undertakes that awesome task to sacrifice the blood. He said, I've trodden the winepress
alone, and of the people there's none, there's none with me. This was his work alone. trouble's near and there's no
one to help. Look at the next verse. Many
bulls have compassed me. Strong bulls of Bashan have beset
me round about. Now this Bashan is a country
noted for cattle. That's what it's noted for in
a couple of scriptures. Numbers 32 and Deuteronomy 32. But what he's talking about here
is not Not big bulls, cattle wives. He's talking about people
who think they're big bulls. He's talking about the chief
priest, and the elders, and the scribes, and the Pharisees among
the Jews. That's who he's talking about.
Many bulls have compassed me. Strong, mighty bulls of Bashan
have beset me, surrounded me. upon me with their mouths, like
a ravening and roaring lion. He came to his own, his own nation,
his scribes and elders and Pharisees and rabbis, and they received
him not. But these strong bulls also include
Herod and Pilate and the Caesars and the Romans and the Gentiles,
because He was not only coming to his own, and his own received
him not, but he was in the world. And the world was made by him,
and the world, all of them, knew him not. Turn with me to Acts
4. Listen to this scripture. In
Acts chapter 4, verse 20. Strong bulls, mighty bulls. The kings of the earth, Acts
4, verse 26. The kings of the earth stood
up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and
against his Christ. For of the truth against thy
holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, Pontius
Pilate, the Gentiles, the people of Israel, all, there was none
to help. They were gathered together to
do what they wanted to do. But bless God, to do whatsoever
God's hand and counsel determines before to be done. It's one to
have. Trouble is near, and none to
have but this one. And they gaped upon him. Look
at this verse. They gaped upon him. They opened
their mouths against him. They cried out against him. They
opened their mouths, and they had a lot to say. like roaring,
ravening lions. They cried, We have no king but
Caesar, crucify him. If you are the son of God, come
down from the cross. He trusted in God, let's see
if God will have him. Let's see if God will deliver
him. He saved others, himself he could not save. Our Lord bore their contempt and their
ridicule and their hatred. From the soldiers to the high
priests to all of the rulers of Israel to the kings and the
Gentiles and the Roman soldiers, a mob, a lynch mob turned against
him and there was no one to help. And then verse 14, I want you
to listen to this. Now our Lord's agony Our Lord's
greatest agony was the agony of soul. Now listen carefully
to me, the agony of soul. We know a lot about agony of
body and feelings. I wish we knew more about the
agony of soul, like he did. This is what the scripture says,
he hath put him to grief. shall make his soul an offering
for sin. Matthew 26, he said, My soul
is exceedingly sorrowful, my soul unto death. And he sweat, as it were, great
drops of blood, the agony of soul. And he said in John 12,
Now is my soul troubled, but what shall I say? Father, save
me from this hour. For this cause came out of this
hour, and my soul is exceeding sorrowful. Our Lord gave up himself,
spirit, body, and soul unto God to redeem us. Spirit, body, and
soul. That's right. Turn to 1 Thessalonians
just a moment. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. Listen to this. His agony, spirit,
soul, and body, none can describe. Listen, 1 Thessalonians 5.23,
And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly, completely. I pray, God, your whole spirit,
soul, and body. That's how he redeemed us. That's
how we're redeemed. And that's the glory to which
we're visiting. Spirit, body, and soul be preserved blameless
unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then he says here
in verse 14, listen to this agony. Psalm 22, 14, I'm poured out
like water. What's that mean? I'm utterly
spent, feeble. poured out in strength and spirit
like water on the ground, never to be gathered up. Poured out
like water, just poured out on the ground. That's what, let
me turn to this scripture. This is what Paul is talking
about that applies to us too. We have this treasure in earthen
vessels that the power The excellence of the power might be of God
and not of us, and we're troubled on every side, but we're not
distressed. We're perplexed, puzzled, but
we're not inspired. We're persecuted, but not forsaken. We're cast down, but thank God
we're not destroyed, poured out like water, feeble in strength
and spirit. All my bones are out of joint.
Can you imagine that? Not broken now. Not a bone of
him must be broken. Passover lamb must not have a
bone broken. Christ must not. But stretched
on that cross. Just stretched. He said all my
bones are pulled out of joint. Dislocated. Out of place. Can
you imagine the pain? And the agony, all my joints,
my bones and joints are pulled out of place. And listen, the
heart is like wax in the midst of my bowels. It's melted, just
like wax melted in the midst of my bowels. As wax melts before the fire,
so the heart of Christ melted. before the wrath and fury of
Almighty God against our sins. My heart, like wax, is melted
in the midst of my bowels before the judgment and wrath of my
God. Psalm 68 says, As wax melteth
before the fire, our Lord was melted before God's wrath. So
let the wicked perish one day at the presence of God. And he says in verse 15, my strength
is dried up like a potsherd. How would you describe this?
I can't, but I'll take a shot at it. Through the loss of blood from
the time he was in Pilate's And the soldiers howled when they
beat him, scourged him through the loss of blood and
water. Nobody gave him, he said, I thirst. Nobody gave him a drink of water. They stuck gall and vinegar in
his mouth. And through the loss of blood
and water and through the violent fever, the fever engulfing his
whole body, his strength was dried up like a potsherd. dried
up like a clay pot left too long in the fire, in
the furnace. This is our Passover lamb, roasted
with fire, the fire of God's wrath. My strength is dried up
like a clay pot left in the furnace too long, and my tongue cleaves
to my jaws. My tongue cleaves to my jaws,
and thou hast brought me unto the dust of death." When he hung
on the cross, these wicked men gave him vinegar. This was their
reply. But listen to this verse, Psalm
69, if you want to turn to Psalm 69. And let's start with verse
20. Psalm 69, verse 19. You know, I told you so many
times that the Psalms, the Messianic Psalms, the Messianic Psalms
that David gave us are so akin to the Scriptures regarding Christ's
suffering and sacrifice. Listen to Psalm 69, verse 19. Thou hast known my reproach,
and my shame, and my dishonor, And my adversaries are all before
me. Trouble's near. Reproach hath
broken my heart. I'm full of heaviness. And I
looked for someone, for some to take pity, but there was none. And for comforters I found none. And they gave me also gall for
my meat. In my thirst they gave me better
get a drink. All right. But left their table. become a snare before them. And
that which should have been for their help, let it become a trap. And let their eyes be darkened
that they see not, and make their loins continually to shake, and
pour out thine indignation against them, and let thy wrathful anger
take hold to them." I don't want to experience that. I want to
look to Him, and rest in Him, and believe on Him, and trust
Him, and be enabled of God to embrace Him, and not be numbered
with those people. My tongue cleaveth to my jaws,
now has brought me to the dust of death. Now listen! Our Lord
Jesus Christ died, and He was buried. And he was laid in the
grave. But his body did not lie there
long enough to see corruption. He could not see corruption.
His body saw no corruption as I was shall, very quickly, soon
as we died. But he was identified with us
in the dust of death. Thou hast brought me to the grave. Thou hast brought me to the experience
of death. Thou hast brought me to where
you'll bring them someday, the dust of death. But thank God,
he's going to bring us to the glory of resurrection. Look at
verse 16. Dogs, strong bulls and dogs encompassed
me. The assembly of the wicked have
enclosed me, and they pierced my hands and my feet. Where does
it say in the scripture that they drove nails into his hands
and his feet? Well, several places. I'll read
some. Zechariah 12, 10. They shall
look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for me him
as one mourned for his only son. Revelation 1, 7. Behold, he cometh
with clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they also which
pierced shall see him, and they shall
mourn and wail as for an only son. But turn to John 20. Here is the strong scripture
regarding the nails. In John chapter 20, verse 24, But Thomas, one of the twelve,
called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. John 20,
verse 25. The other disciples therefore
said to him, We've seen the Lord. But he said, Except I see in
his hand the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print
of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe. And after eight days again his
disciples were within, and Thomas was with them. And then came
Jesus, the doors being shut, and he stood in the midst of
them and said, Peace be unto you. Then said he to Thomas,
Reach hither your finger, and behold my hands. and reach hither
thy hand, and thrust it into my side. And being I faithless,
but believing, and Thomas answered and said to him, My Lord and
my God." Verse 17, I may tell, Psalm 22, 17, I must, I may tell
all my bones, they look and stare upon me. Let me show you something
here. When a person was crucified,
like our Lord was crucified, I see a lot of crucifixes and
pictures and they all had this scarf hanging around his neck
and a loincloth hanging around his waist. But our Lord, his
countenance was so marred as nobody else has ever been so
marred. He didn't look like a human being. brutally beaten and so brutally
mistreated. And when they crucified him,
they crucified him naked, completely naked. That's the reason they
stare at me. They hold me in ridicule and
contempt and stare at me. The person who was crucified,
as our Lord was, and nailed to the cross, was crucified naked.
And he was nailed to the cross when it was on the ground. They'd
lay the cross on the ground and the person would lie up on that
cross and that's when they drove the nails. And when the cross
in the hands of the soldiers was lifted up and dropped into
the hole that had been prepared for it, with the weight of his
body held by the nails, all his stood out so you could see him. That's what he said. I can tell,
they can see all my bones, my ribs and my feet and legs. This is what his enemies came
to see. This is what they came to see. They came to see, to
look and to stare upon him. I can tell all my bones, and
they look and they stare upon me." And he said, I read a while
ago, sitting down, they watched him there. They enjoyed it. Wicked, evil
hearts enjoyed it. Let me read you another psalm,
a Messianic psalm. Turn to Psalm 35. It has to do
with this same experience of our Lord. Verse 21, yeah, Psalm
35, 21, yeah, they opened their mouth wide against me. And they said, ah, our eyes have
seen it. I've seen it. They stare upon
me. This thou hast seen, O Lord. The Lord saw this too. The Lord
God saw this. Saw them and saw this, saw him. O Lord, keep not silence. O Lord, be not far from me. O Lord, stir up thyself. Awake
to my judgment, even unto my cause. My Lord and my God, and
bless your heart, he did and he will." Mourn for him as one mourns for
an older son, and yet he said, Weep not for me. Weep not for
me. They've done this in a green
tree. What will they do in the dry? Weep for yourselves and
for your children. Weep for yourselves. Weep for
those who can't enter into this, can't lay hold upon it, can't
embrace it, can't find the joy and glory of it, can't see my
cause. That's what he said there. Did
you hear that? Lord, stir up yourself, awake
to judgment. Let's hear this, have some judgment.
Even unto my cause, my Lord and my God. That's all right. That's
all right. In verse 18, they part my garments
among them, cast lots upon my vesture. Those who died on the
cross, as I said, were crucified naked. and their clothes belonged
to the executioners. There must have been four soldiers
involved in this particular execution. That's what I think from John
19. Would you turn there, John 19? I believe there were four
soldiers who took active part in this crucifixion. It says in John 19, verse 23,
then the soldiers, he got it, John 19, verse 23, then the soldiers,
when they crucified Jesus, took his garments and made four parts
to each soldier a part. They divided up his belongings
and gave them to the soldiers, to each soldier a part, four
parts. And also his coat, his robe. Now the coat was without seam.
This was an unusual robe. This is the robe of our Lord.
You remember years ago the book, The Robe? I can't remember who
wrote that book, but I remember there's a book called The Robe.
What happened to the robe and the lives of people who were
involved in the robe. But they didn't tear this robe.
It was a special robe. Think about it, woven from top
to bottom. without a seam, without a stitch,
without a seam. This was special. And even those
dirty, vile, wicked Roman soldiers knew something special when they
saw it. He's special. And so they said among themselves,
those four, they said therefore among themselves, let's not tear
it, let's not rend it, let's cast lots for it, whose it shall
be. One thing you want to pay careful
attention, that the scripture might be fulfilled. If you could sometime take your
concordance and just go through the life and the the work and minister of our
Lord in reference to him that the scripture might be fulfilled.
He was, he was, what's the scripture? He died for our sins according
to the scriptures. He was buried and rose again
according to the scriptures. And this right here, they parted
my garments among them and cast lots that the scripture might
be fulfilled. And another scripture says, And
when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, from Genesis
to Revelation, Genesis to Malachi, they took him down from the tree.
They took him down from the tree when they had fulfilled everything
God prophesied, promised, purposed regarding this sacrifice. All right, verse 19. Thou far from me, O Lord, my
strength, make haste to help me. Deliver my soul from the
sword, my only one, my darling," that's what he's saying here,
the only begotten Son of God, my darling from the power of
the dog. Save me from the lion's mouth,
listen, for thou hast heard me, thou hast heard me. The Lord heard him. That's right,
he's heard me. Turn to Hebrews 5, Hebrews chapter
5. The Lord heard him in Hebrews
chapter 5. Listen to this. I love this scripture here. Hebrews
chapter 5, verse 7. You have it? Hebrews 5, 7. Who
in the days of his flesh, when he offered up prayers and supplication
with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save
him from death, and he was heard. He was heard. Thou hast heard
me, in that he feared, in that he was obedient, in that he obeyed
for his piety, and though he were a son, he learned obedience
by the things which he suffered, and being made perfect, he became
the author of eternal salvation to them that obeyed. Let's move
on. Verse 22, I will declare thy
name unto my brethren. You know who he's talking about? He's talking about you right
here and me. Right here in all of this, he's declared the name
of God, the holiness of God, the truth of God, the purpose
of God, the glory of God. He's declared every bit of this
to my brethren. Not to the scalawags out there
that have no use for him, he's declaring this to you and me.
My brethren, in the midst of the Church, in the midst of the
congregation, I'll praise you. You that fear
the Lord, you that love God, praise him, praise him. You that fear God, praise him.
All ye seed of Jacob, all ye sons of Jacob, glorify him, and
fear him. All ye seeds of Israel, fear
the Lord, praise him, glorify him, and fear him. For, listen,
he hath not despised nor abhorred the afflictions of the afflicted,
neither hath he hid his face from him, but when he cried,
he heard. Our Lord was afflicted, and when
he cried, God heard him. You and I are afflicted. That's
right. The Holy Spirit afflicts us,
condemns us, and convicts us, and troubles us. He'll hear us
too. He'll hear. And listen, my praise
shall be of thee in the great congregation. I will pay my vows
before them. that they're him, and I'll give
them eternal life, and they'll never perish. Is the Lord Jesus Christ the
head of the Church? Well, what kind of head is he
if the body dies? But they won't die. Is the Lord
Jesus the shepherd of the sheep? That he is. Well, what kind of
shepherd is it if the sheep perish? They never will. Is he the high
priest who is offered the perfect atonement? What kind of high
priest is he if the atonement fails? It won't. Is he the physician
who heals all our diseases? What if he doesn't heal them?
He will. Is he the bridegroom? Is he the bridegroom? Does he
have a bride? What kind of bridegroom is it? If the bride perishes, they never
will. Is he the king? He's the king
forever. Does he reign eternally? That
he does. And Mr. Bonar said, firm as his
throne, his gospel stands. my hope, my trust. And that soul
that is found in Jesus' hands, that soul will never be lost. His honor is engaged to keep
the weakest of his sheep. All that the Heavenly Father
gave, the Son shall surely keep. And neither death nor hell can
remove his children from his breast. For in the bosom of his
love they are, they shall forever rest." That's the gospel. That's true. That's not perhaps,
or if, or maybe. That's for sure. My sheep hear my voice, and I
give them eternal life, and they'll never perish. My Father gave
them me. and my father will never desert
him, never forsake him.