Fifth Truth: Christ's Pattern of Prayer in Suffering - Psalm 40:11-17

Please stand in honor of God's word. The Old Testament reading will be from Psalm chapter 40. I waited patiently for the Lord. He inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God.

Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord. Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie. You have multiplied, O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us. None can compare with you. I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told.

In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear. burnt and sin offering you have not required. Then I said, behold, I have come. In the scroll of the book it is written of me. I delight in your will, O my God, your laws within my heart. I have told of the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation. Behold, I have not restrained my lips, as you know, O Lord.

I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart. I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation. I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation. As for you, O Lord, you will not restrain your mercy from me. Your steadfast love and your faithfulness will ever preserve me. For evils have encompassed me beyond number.

My iniquities have overtaken me, and I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head. My heart fails me. Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me. O Lord, make haste to help me. let those be put to shame let those be put to shame and disappointed altogether who seek to snatch my life away let those be turned back and brought to dishonor who delight in my hurt let those be appalled because of their shame who say to me, aha, aha but may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you may those who love your salvation say continually great is the Lord, as for me I am poor and needy but the Lord takes thought for me You are my help and my deliverer.

Do not delay, O my God. New Testament reading today is found in Mark 11, verses 1-10. Now when they journeyed to Jerusalem to Bethpage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples and said to them, Go into the village in front of you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find a colt tied. on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it.

If anyone says to you, Why are you doing this? Say, The Lord has need of it and will send it back here immediately. And they went away and found a colt tied at a door outside in the street, and they untied it. And some of the standing there said to them, What are you doing untying the colt? And they told them what Jesus had said, and they let them go. And they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it.

And he sat on it. And many spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David. Hosanna in the highest.

You may be seated. Well, this is the last session of our Bible conference. It started Friday night. We've had an incredible time with Pastor Dunn in the ministry of the Word of God. What a great time we've had in hearing these truths from Psalm 40. And he'll finish today in that, and I'm looking forward to that.

Pastor Glenn is a pastor of Cornerstone Bible Fellowship Church in North Ridgeville. he got his master's degree from Grand Rapids Seminary his doctorate from Southern Seminary in Louisville he's the executive director of Biblical Counseling Institute of Ohio an organization that's had a tremendous impact in the biblical counseling movement I mean, he's been all over the world with it Trinidad, Tobago, Malaysia, South Africa I'm trying to think where he hasn't been but anyway I appreciated his ministry there he's been the moderator of FIRE Fellowship of Independent Reformed Evangelicals is on the board with that and have appreciated his ministry there as well so Glenn come minister the word of God we pray that again God will use you this morning as he's used you this week Thank you for the privilege of being here and just want to thank you for your gracious hospitality to my wife and myself and the fellowship of LaRue is always very sweet and so thank you for Friday night enjoyed the choir that sang on Friday night and the children's choir that you had here this morning to sing. It's just so sweet. And the fellowship that you enjoy here at the church is so sweet.

I should just say, I don't need to, but I'll just say, at one of the regionals that we had, that you all had here a couple of years back, I was just so taken with the calmness and just ease laid back That was the word laid back I was just so taken with the laid back thing And we were getting ready to host the international conference in the fake Amish country And I said to myself, we have these prayer times, you know, that we do. And they're very kind of because of the number of churches and everything. They put a timer out and they, you know, have a bell and you only have so long and all this stuff.

And I just said, you know, we're not going to do that. We're just going to be laid back like LaRue. That's what we're going to do. I just want that whole feeling, just that whole vibe, just we're going to just be laid back like LaRue. And they still talk today in the board meeting about how poorly that went. Because it really crashed and burned. and I'm sitting with a and I'm like please let's be laid back but you don't have to tell us when you were born and all those things and it got a little carried away so I'm thankful for LaRue but I don't think that we can really practice LaRue the way that you all can do LaRue but you've all been very kind to us very gracious we appreciate the opportunity You say I've been all over the world because in God's kindness, my people are glad to get rid of me.

And I usually don't get a second invitation. So it's the way it has to work out. So I invite you to take your Bibles again, please, and turn to our text in Psalm chapter 40. And I appreciate so much your diligence in listening in the word of God and the opportunities that we've had together. Recall that in terms of its theme, Psalm 40 is divided into two sections.

The first portion, verses 1 through 5, a section of praise and thanksgiving to the Lord. And then the second portion is the prayer in response of light of God's deliverance from the pit. So we pointed out that the second section is even richer for us, as we began to see in the previous hour, because it slips into the messianic portion of the psalm. And of course, that messianic portion is centered on Jesus Christ, as we saw from the first verses six through 10 in our first hour.

So in those verses, we were told that we just to be reminded of this, we were hopelessly lost in our sin and destined for the pit of hell. And so were it not for the incarnation of Christ, we would be completely lost. So while retaining his divinity, Christ became man in the flesh and yet retained his divinity. Why is that important? Because Christ came as a man.

He could serve as man's substitute to die on behalf of mankind, to be the propitiation for our sins. So Christ serving as the second Adam, the God-man, able to give his life for the sin of the world, as John says in John 1.29. So Christ had to come in the flesh. This is how he became our brother, our kinsman in the flesh, and yet he remained our Redeemer, the Eternal One, the Great I Am.

So without these truths about Christ, there would be no possibility for us to be brought out of the pit. There would be no need again for the celebration of his birth, his life, his death, his resurrection, his ascension. But because Christ was born in the flesh, because he was perfect, because he was sinless, he gave himself as a sacrifice at Calvary, and that satisfied the righteous justice of God and his holy law.

So again, by being 100% God and 100% man, Jesus accomplished the redemption of his people by taking upon himself flesh. As this perfect God-man, Jesus is fully worthy, therefore, of our trust and our worship, even in the time of trial. So with that context again set before us, it is our final time together to look at Psalm 40. Let's concentrate then on the following points together.

Number one is Christ's humble service. Number two, Jesus prays for continued mercies. And number three, we can trust in Christ to deliver. So let's look at verses 7 through 8. Then I said, Behold, I come. In the scroll of the book it is written of me, I delight to do your will, O my God, and your law is written within my heart.

So again, this is the messianic portion of Psalm 40. and here we see the necessary result of Christ's incarnation. He came in order that he would be obedient to the Father. And so we remember that this is the fuller treatment and speaking of the ears that were dug out for him as we saw in the last hour. The cultural mark, imagine this, the cultural mark, the Son of God, the cultural mark he takes upon himself of a willing slave.

In fact, if you would just look to a portion of Scripture which describes us, I think, so perfectly in Philippians chapter 2. Look in your Bible, if you would, please, to Philippians chapter 2. As we come to Philippians chapter 2, here's a wonderful portion that speaks of the humility of Christ and the offering of Christ. Look at verse 6 in Philippians chapter 2. who, although existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped.

But what did he do? He emptied himself by taking the form of a what? A slave. Taking the form of a slave. Being made in the likeness of men, being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross so what Paul says here in Philippians chapter 2 is a Greek word that he uses taking the form of a doulos You know that probably doulos It means slave Unlike the usage in Hebrew which allows variance based upon context, the word doulos in the Greek always means one thing.

It always means slave. And this is the Greek word that Paul chooses to use here in describing Jesus. Talking about this mark, ears you have dug out for me. So let's just take this in for a minute as we contemplate these truths. Jesus takes upon himself a cultural name that was the lowest of the low. Even in Roman times. and yet isn't that just like Jesus he submissively and obediently comes to do the will of his father how so Jesus became a slave as we read in second Corinthians eight through nine though he was rich yet for your sake he became poor so that through his poverty you might become rich Jesus didn't just appear as a slave it's hard it's hard words i'm preaching some of this in a series at home on christian liberty and the issue of christian liberty and the title of the series is you can but should you you can but should you then the example that christ gives to us here in philippians chapter 2 he didn't come to do his own to live out his own will aside from the will of his father he He came to do the will of his father.

And he takes upon him this cultural mark. He became a slave. One commentary states, this aligns with the cultural context of slavery in the ancient world, where slaves had no rights or status. Jesus' slavery is a fulfillment of the messianic prophecy in Isaiah 42.1, where the Messiah is depicted as God's slave. This act of taking on slavery is a type of Christ's role as the ultimate servant leader, exemplified in his earthly ministry and his sacrificial death.

How so? We see it in verse 8 in Philippians 2, even to death on the cross. Even to death on the cross. Jesus humbled himself and obediently gave himself to die on the cross. You know that in Roman culture, such humility was seen to be counter-cultural. Romans valued status and honor and dignity. and all worthy of the greatest of all of these, what did we see in Jesus?

Jesus willingly humbled himself and as the willing earthly slave of God, he gave himself up to be crucified, counted among the cursed, cursed are all those who die where? On the cross. Again, MacArthur asks of our Lord, how far down did he go? In the likeness of man, humbled himself, becoming, what's the next word? Obedient. You see, that's what slaves do.

All the way to the point of death, even death on the cross. Jesus took up his cross and followed. He denied himself. He perfectly obeyed the will of his Father. Jesus gave up, as it were, those rights that were due to him. And he willingly obeyed his Father. may I just remind you that Jesus says to us if we go through trial and heartache and sorrow I hope none of you have thought through this conference that I'm belittling any of that some of you have to suffer things that are heart-wrenching and we understand that it's never to act or take away from the suffering that you have we grieve with you from the loss of this precious saint of your church today and pray for God's comfort we hate my wife and I we have been praying for that for you for comfort so none of this is to take away and say oh if you're suffering it's not a big deal it's a big deal we understand it but it's not bigger than Jesus suffered that's how we always have to remember these truths Jesus suffered and Jesus reminds us and I say this gently but I say it to encourage you Jesus reminds us that the students aren't above the teacher.

If Jesus came to suffer, we as his followers, we're going to suffer. The followers aren't more than the master. And so Jesus knows what it is to suffer. Jesus knows what it is to take upon himself the will of the Father and to have to suffer through circumstances because that's the best way. so I don't take away from your heartache I don't take away from your pain or your suffering what I hope to do through these series and through this whole series of messages is to encourage you to look to Jesus He knows He knows what it is to suffer He knows what it is to bear those things that are difficult and He did it perfectly and through Christ you can too He can help you He can help carry that weight and so if we go back to Psalm 40 and we consider again at the end or the middle portion of verse 7, we are reminded of the scroll again.

And in thinking of the scroll, it's helpful to be reminded that, as the Geneva Study Bible comments, when you had opened my ears and heart, and remember this is Christ, this is the messianic portion, when you had opened my ears and heart, I was ready to obey you, being assured that I was written in the book of your elect for this end. So the scrolls in heaven, some from eternity past, some which we'll see when we enter eternity. We see this, for example, in Revelation where we read of the Lamb's book of life.

And so as we said the last time, Jesus came to accomplish what had been predestined for him to accomplish. And so his example is a helpful thought as we consider, again, those times when we endure trial. my mother used to say our disappointments you might not have to agree with this 100 but she was not a theologian but she sure helped me in so many ways Best counsel I ever got, I got from my mother about the ministry. You know what she always used to say?

She said a lot, but she always used to say this, best counsel. Son, never trust people's opinion of you. It's just like the wind. one minute they'll be blowing all for you and the next minute they'll be blowing all against you I have never forgotten that count and it's true that's the ministry by the way one minute Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna and at the end of the week what? same people do what? crucify him what happened? it's just that we're so fickle right? and so that's great counsel never trust people's opinion of you.

It's just like the wind. One minute they'll be blowing all for you, and the next minute they'll be blowing all against you. I used to have a willow tree outside of the office where I was at my former church, and when we were going through all of that stuff, I like willow trees, and when we were going through all that stuff, I would just sit and watch that willow tree and the wind blowing it one way, and in a second it's just blowing that way.

I'm living that right now. I know how that is. I'm living that. So she would say, our incidents, sorry, our accidents are his incidents. Those things that we consider an accident, that's an incident in God's plan for us. This is the incident that we're to go through.

And then she would say, our disappointments are his appointments. You think about that. Written down in the scroll. Our disappointments are his appointments. Nothing takes God by surprise. The trial, the suffering, it's not more than we need.

It's the incident that we need in order to help us to look more like Jesus. They're for our benefit. They're not an accident. God will accomplish his preordained purposes through them, not in spite of them. Thus does David say in Psalm 139, 16, again, all my days have been written down in your book before one of them came to be. you see because Christ obeyed the will of God perfectly something which we will never do yet God promises that he will make us look more like Christ through our trials that's Romans 8.29 and everybody I think probably knows Romans 8.28 all things work together for good to them that love God to them that are called according to his purpose but what's verse 29? verse 29 is you have been predestined to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ that predestination includes all the suffering and all the trials the joys, the heartaches, the laughs, the cries, everything in order to help us to look more like Jesus Christ he will see us through because he's been victorious, he'll see us through Philippians 1.6 is a wonderful promise to those of us who are Christians he that began a good work in you will walk away and forget it that's not what it says isn't that what it says you all shocked what happened to him he that began a good work in you will be what will be faithful to do what to complete that work until the very day of Jesus Christ you see because Christ was victorious he'll make us victorious we can be assured that we were also written in the book of the elect and we can be assured that everything that we're going through is part of God's perfect plan.

So verses 9 through 10, I have proclaimed the good news of righteousness in the great assembly. I do not restrain my lips. O Lord, you yourself know. I have not hidden your righteousness within my heart. I have declared your faithfulness and your salvation. I have not concealed your loving kindness and your truth from the great assembly.

So there are multiple ways in which Christ performed the will of his Father. He preached the gospel. He worked miracles. preached in the synagogues, preached in the cities, preached privately to his disciples. But most importantly, he proclaimed God's love from the cross of Calvary. Remember that. The place where he and he alone could accomplish the will of God in redemption.

So in his incarnation, Christ came as the living word of God, taught the word without any hint of keeping truth back or hidden. He proclaimed it all. He therefore could profess to his father that he had both opened his mouth, speaking freely and fully and professed the will of God by dying on the cross. His mission was to live in obedience, thus offering himself as the sinless and righteous substitute for the sin of his people.

In this, he did not conceal the loving kindness of God, but gave the greatest proof of it. Spurgeon, again, so helpful, comments that Christ's preaching in this way demonstrates the fuller character of God. The tender as well as the stern attributes of our Lord Jesus were fully unveiled. Concealment was far from the great apostle of our profession. Cowardice he never exhibited.

Hesitancy never weakened his language. So recall that Christ preached most boldly and clearly from where? He preached most boldly and clearly from the cross. It takes us to our second point in verse 11. Do not withhold your tender mercies from me, O Lord. let your loving kindness and your truth continually preserve me. Again, the messianic portion of this psalm, Jesus, in our second point, Jesus prays for God's continued mercies.

Jesus says, don't withhold mercies, your tender mercies. Now here, brethren, I think we're given the glimpse of the humanity of Jesus as well as another picture of Jesus' prayer life. Those chapters to me are always interesting. when we get glimpses into how Jesus prayed. This verse is especially pertinent to Christ's prayers to the Father before the offering of himself for the sins of his people.

Consider, for example, the high priestly prayer of Jesus in John 17, as well as... his prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane just before his crucifixion. And so here in verse 11 we're given an even fuller glimpse into the wonderful content of the prayers of Christ. How so? Well here we're able to see what we may say is a more intimate perspective regarding the content of Christ's prayers before Calvary.

This prayer shows us that in his humanity, in his humanity, Jesus Christ, the eternal son of God was still dependent upon God's compassion toward him as he prayed to take upon himself our sin. Think about it. Jesus knew that he would soon have to endure the wrath of God so that his elect might be redeemed. Knowing what he was about to endure what do we see that Jesus is doing?

In the messianic portion of the psalm Jesus is praying for what? He's praying for the father's compassion. And so Christians in this verse is a pattern of prayer that we would do well to pray when we are providentially enduring or being brought to the threshold of having to go through a dark providence. We need to pray for the compassion of the Father.

In this verse, Jesus shows us that he prays for three things. Certainly not an exhaustive list, but I hope it gives at least a pattern for how we can pray when we're facing a time of trial. First off, Jesus prays for a sense of God's tender mercies. to pray for a sense of God's tender mercies. As Christians, we'll never be called to endure what Jesus Christ did.

That is the utter forsakenness of the Father while he carried the sin of the world upon him. Yet importantly, Jesus teaches us here that even when there are those times when, note the word, when we feel as if God is now present. You ever been there? Ever felt those times? You feel, I just don't feel like God is present? it's one of the reasons why we keep having to remind ourselves as the people of God we don't live by our feelings we have to live by our faith Hebrews chapter 11 is not the great chapter of the feelings of the saints it's the chapter of what? the faith of the saints we're not called to live by our feelings we endure them we feel them but we have to tame them we have to bring our feelings under control You see, the problem with the culture today is if you use feelings to determine truth, you're going to be in big trouble.

Only faith. Only faith. And faith always has to have an object. When we go down to the fake Amish country, and we do go to the fake Amish country. I've learned here it's fake. And we do.

I have to laugh at the little plaques and everything. and believe, and have faith. And I always say to my wife, in what? Believe what? Have faith in what? You see, faith and belief always have to have an object. Not just enough to believe.

It's not just enough to have faith. There has to be an object. Feelings will never get us where we need to be in the Christian life. Feelings are a response to faith. We should feel. We have to feel.

God's given us tear ducts and such. We have to feel. But we can't live by our feelings. We have to live by our faith. Our faith has to inform our feelings. And there are those times when we will feel, because of our circumstances, that God isn't present.

It feels like he's not. It feels like he's not answering prayer. And in spite of our feelings, we have to remind ourselves through faith, Wait, my Bible promises me Jesus will never leave me. Jesus will never forsake me. Jesus is always present and his compassion can always be prayed for at the times when we don't feel it. You see, it's because of this truth that we can and we should pray for God's tender mercies to be known to us, especially in our times of heartache.

When we suffer, we're tempted to tout God. When we don't sense His presence, we're tempted to think that God has forgotten us. Again, Spurgeon says, the presence of God is the joy of His people, but any suspicion of His absence is distracting beyond measure. I've been there. I've been there in the Christian walk. It's a sense of going through the thing, but it's one thing to go through the problem when you sense God there, you sense the presence of Him.

He's always there. The issue is not whether or not He's there. The issue is whether or not I sense his presence. And there are those times when you go through a conflict. You say, I just don't feel like God is with me in this thing. Have you ever been there?

I just don't feel like God is present with me. And you have to say to yourself, wait a minute, he's here. He's here. He's leading me. He's walking me. This is the path he's chosen for me.

But as Spurgeon says, any suspicion of his absence is distracting beyond measure to the Christian. Spurgeon goes on, let us then ever remember that the Lord is nigh us. The refiner is never far from the mouth of the furnace when his gold is in the fire. And the Son of God is always walking in the midst of the flames when his holy children are cast into them.

So in this humanity, even our Savior had to endure a time when God's presence seemed far off so that God's purposes would be accomplished. My God, says Jesus from the cross, my God, why have you forsaken me? In the pattern of Christ's prayer then here, we see that it's appropriate for us to pray for God's tender mercies to be known. This evidence is to us that as Christians we must remember to believe and we must remember to trust in God and His Word.

Although it might not feel as if God is present, He still is and He always will be. He is there. Look with me, if you would, to Lamentations chapter 3. Lamentations chapter 3 verses 22 through 26 through the Lord mercies we are not consumed because his compassions fail not They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion.

He says, my soul, therefore, I have hope in him. The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. It is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth. The Lord is here. The Lord is present with you.

The Lord is being faithful to you. The fact is that God's faithful compassion is new to us each and every day. But what then is the purpose of God allowing us at times not to sense the fullness of his presence, especially during the time of distress when we think we need that the most? Such times are providentially brought to prompt us to fly to God. For God is ever and always near.

Our lack of sensing His nearness may be influenced by many things, none of which really affect the reality of His promised presence with us. How do we know? Listen to the way that Job describes this in Job chapter 10 and verse 23. Right after saying that he doesn't sense God's presence, this is what Job says, but he knows the way that I take. And when he tries me, I shall come forth as gold.

That's responding in faith. Job knows that in spite of how he feels, God has not really left him. He'll trust God, even if he doesn't currently feel God's presence. That follows the pattern of Christ's first request. The second request that we can say for Christ is that he appeals to God's loving kindness. In Exodus 33, 19, God tells Moses that he is a compassionate and a gracious God.

So here we're given an introduction again to the marvelous character of our God. A.W. Pink states, Familiar as this blessed attribute of God may be to his people, it's something entirely peculiar to divine revelation. None of the ancients ever dreamed of investing his gods with such endearing perfection as this. None of the objects worshipped by present-day heathen possess gentleness and tenderness.

Very much the reverse is true, as the hideous features of their idols exhibit. Philosophers regard it as a serious reflection upon the honor of the absolute to ascribe such qualities to it. But the scriptures have much to say about God's loving kindness or his paternal favor to his people, his tender affection toward them. So in the Hebrew word, the word that is used here is chesed, the Hebrew which is commonly translated as loyal love. in the older translations loving kindness this earlier usage remains appropriate for the english word kindness finds its meaning in a primitive root that lies behind the word kin meaning that when god treats his covenant people graciously and kindly he does so because he views them as though they were his kin, his family.

Consequently, his loyal love takes on a nuance that in his great faithfulness to his covenant people, there is warmth like that of a father to his children. There are many definitions which fall under this term loving kindness, but for our purposes, let's consider just three. under this definition of loving kindness, goodness, kindness, faithfulness. We see that in the life of Jesus that God is ever loving and compassionate so that Christ, in preparation for his coming passion, prays that God's goodness, kindness, faithfulness will yet preserve him in the trial.

What a great way for us to pray in the midst of trial. God, by your goodness to me, by your kindness to me, by your faithfulness to me. Help me to persevere. Help me to trust you. Jesus prays for God's compassionate care in all that he was about to undertake. Rather than doubting God and allowing bitterness and anger to seep into our souls due to the difficulty and pain, Jesus shows us that it's right to pray for God's loving kindness to be granted. the mere act of praying will remind us that God is always compassionate to us he always will be it's his promise as God says through the prophet Isaiah though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed says the Lord who has compassion on you Isaiah 54 10 that takes us to the third element that Jesus prays about and that's truth In the Hebrew, the word is ameth.

And again, there are a number of appropriate interpretations of this word. Our context could include reliability, sureness, stability, and again, that elusive word of the culture, peace. Jesus knows that when he will be lied to and lied about, when he will be falsely accused, Jesus knows there is yet the everlasting surety of God's unchanging truth. we too would do well to remember this especially when the accuser of the brethren the devil may hurl his lies and accusations about us regarding what most often regarding our forgiveness you don't really think you're forgiven do you you aren't you the one that said this aren't you the one that did that aren't you the one that went there aren't you the one that drank that aren't you the one that smoked that whatever it is the devil the false accuser comes and he hurls his lies and his accusations at us about what? about our forgiveness one thing to go through the trial and another thing to be attacked by am I really a Christian? do you know how often I hear that in the counseling setting?

I going through this trial I wonder if I a Christian well let take a look at that You going through this trial because Jesus says as his followers what will we have in this world We'll have tribulation. It tests us. It tries us. And the devil loves to come and hurl his lies and hurl his accusations at us, particularly about our forgiveness. remember that his very name devil literally means to slander or to falsely accuse and his other name satan literally means adversary or enemy so that we might say this the devil is the enemy who attacks us with slander and false accusations and against such we must remind ourselves of god's everlasting truth Luther's purported interactions with the enemy and attacking him I'm a great sinner, I'm a great sinner, I'm a great sinner and Luther's response was I'm a great sinner, yes but I have a greater savior than my sin that's faith I'm a great sinner I'm a great sinner but I have a greater savior, thank God than my sin and my own wretchedness you see against such accusations we can and we must remind ourselves how do I feel?

No, what do I believe? what does my Bible tell me about these things? we would do well to remember God's truth when we may be tempted to doubt God in the midst of every difficult circumstance God's promise, God's words are ever and always true to us even in the darkest night they're true even if you don't sense the presence of God they're true he's there don't feel it, believe it and in the grace of God your feelings will count no matter what lies we may hear today against God's truth or lies about those who base their lives upon it the Christian can always comfort themselves with the knowledge that God's word is true we live in a world of liars but this book from start to finish is true you know why? because it's God's word it's always true you don't come to it with your feelings I don't feel like it's true well who cares? sorry who cares how you feel? are you going to live your life by your feelings? you're going to live a life like that that's what the world describes as manic when everything's good you're up. Whoa, whoa, how you doing? Praise God.

If it got any better, I think I'd burst. I would just know what to do. Hallelujah. God is so good, so kind, so gracious. So after lunch, hey, how's your afternoon? My life is terrible.

I'm in the dumps. It's awful. I don't even know if God exists. Are you the same person? Now, that's a straw man. Sometimes it does happen with people.

That's not the way that most of us act on the outside. But if we're honest, if we're living our feelings, isn't that how we act really on the inside? We're not called to be a people of feelings, dear brothers and sisters. We're called to be a people of faith. A people of faith. And I commend you.

I commend you for coming on a Friday night. I commend you for coming on a Saturday morning. I commend you for being here in God's house. You know why? Because when you are saturated with the word of God, God will do his work in you. He'll increase your faith for the times of darkness.

God's word is true. The world that we live in tries to get us not to believe in God's word. I don't care. Pick a topic. I don't care what it is. from the very creation. And I said to myself, I didn't promise, but I said to myself, I wasn't going to go here.

But I don't understand these guys who are preaching from pulpits that don't believe in Genesis 1, 2, and 3 as being literal. If you lose Genesis 1, 2, and 3, you've lost your whole Bible. Your whole Bible's gone. Ask the evolutionist to explain to you where evil comes from. He can't do it. we're evolving into something better show me where people who say oh I believe that mankind is basically good now maybe here in LaRue you can get by with this but here's something I always will say at home closer to the city you tell me that you believe that mankind is basically good but did you lock your car you lock your house, you probably don't hear.

Yesterday, there were people coming in and out of the house. Yesterday, I went, are these family, neighbors, friends, people from out of town? Who are these people? Maybe that doesn't work here, but you all see the interaction where someone asked R.C. Sproul, he said, this is so funny, he said, he's reading a question, he said, Dr. Sproul, my brother says that he believes mankind is good and he doesn't believe in sin.

How would you answer him? And R.C. Sproul said, steal his wallet. That's proof. We currently see that the deception, the false flattery, the fraud, the perverse propaganda of the world through the media constantly abounds. We're always being challenged on this.

The lives of the world are seen on all levels, but the worst is when the lies are about the Word of God. The worst are when the lies come against us about what God Word clearly states Be a Christian of faith not of feeling No matter what the world says especially when it contradicts God Word be assured of this dear saints of God God Word still remains true It's always true. It always has been true.

And here's the wonderful thing about the Word of God, it has no expiration date on its truth. It's not culturally true. It's not generationally true. It is ever true. In a world where it's difficult to believe what anyone says, be they friends or enemies, it's great comfort for us to know that the word of God is completely trustworthy because it's completely true.

Even in the darkest night when you don't feel it, your Bible is true. A Christian knows that there can be really only one truth. It's God's truth. And so like Jesus, we should pray, especially when we're enduring a trial, to be comforted with the truth of God's word. Well, why did Jesus pray this way? well verse 12 tells us innumerable evils have surrounded me we come to this verse we see that we're gradually being moved from the messianic portion of the psalm to that of the perspective of david however the emphasis can still be placed upon christ so as long as we understand that context of what we're saying here jesus prays as he does in the previous verse because he knows that he's going to carry the sins of his people and bear the wrath of God.

Remember this, saints, Jesus had no sins of his own to carry. The remarkable thing about our Savior is that he willingly took upon himself my sins as though they were his sins. In this way, the Bible says that God made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God, 2 Corinthians 5.21. So here we see the beautiful doctrine of imputation. meaning that the sins of all God's people were imputed upon Jesus Christ transferred to Jesus Christ.

Gill says this the sins of all of his people laid upon him and placed to his account. He sustained their persons and bore their sins and having them upon him and being chargeable with and answerable for them he was treated by the justice of God as if he had been not only a sinner but a mass of sin. For to be made sin is a stronger expression than to be made a sinner.

But now that this may appear to be only by imputation, and that none may conclude from hence that he was really and actually a sinner, or in himself so, it is said he was made sin. He did not become sin or a sinner through any sinful act of his own, but through his father's act of imputation to which Christ agreed. For it was he that made him sin. It is not said that men made him sin, not but that they spoke of him as a sinner, pretended they knew he was one, and arraigned him at Pilate's bar as such, nor is he said to make himself so, though he readily engaged to be the surety of his people, and voluntarily took upon himself their sins, and gave himself an offering for them, but he, his father is said, to make him sin. it was that he laid or made to meet on him the iniquity of us all think of it little wonder do we call jesus the friend of sinners constantly i'm reminded of this and growing up my mother would sing to us every night uh and going to bed trying to put us to sleep what a friend we have in jesus all our sin trying to put us to sleep it wasn't easy what a friend we have in jesus all our sins and griefs to bear.

What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer. Oh, what peace we often forfeit. Oh, what needless pain we bear. Why? All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. You see, Jesus is the friend of sinners.

As an adult, I realized my mother was singing that not so much for us, but for herself. She was counseling herself in song at the end of a difficult day. What a friend I have in Jesus. All my sins and griefs to bear. Little wonder we call Jesus our friend. What friend has done for us what Jesus alone could do?

Think about just the volume of your own personal sins that were placed upon Jesus. Just your sin. Consider the vast number of them that were placed on Christ. Would you not agree with the one who wrote, they are more than the hairs of the head of my head? Sins against a holy God? Sins against his righteous law?

Sins against his love? Sins against his blood? Sins against his name and his cause? Sins immense as the sea? All my own sin, hide me, O God, in Christ I plead. The sins Christ carried were innumerable, and the shame he bore immeasurable, the guilt he carried unfathomable.

I don't know if I can explain this in a way that's helpful, but I'll try. I can hardly bear the weight of my own sin against the God of heaven. I can hardly stand the shame that is mine because of my sin. I can hardly carry the weight of guilt that is mine, even in Christ, because of my sin. Can you imagine your shame, your guilt? You know how it feels.

Your regret, all that sorrow just to you. Can you imagine what Christ bore on the cross when he took all of yours and all of mine and all of that for all of his people? The weight that Christ had upon himself before the God who was holy, little wonder he cried from the cross. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? I can't stand the weight of my own shame and my own guilt and my own sin.

I couldn't carry yours too. And you could never carry mine. Thank God for a Savior who came to be the God-man. Because the guilt that he carried, the shame that he bore, the sins that we laid on him, We're far greater than we could ever bear. That takes us to our third point. We can trust in Christ to deliver.

Look at verses 13 through 15. Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me. O Lord, make haste to help me. Let them be ashamed and brought to mutual confusion who seek to destroy my life. Let them be driven backward and brought to dishonor who may wish me evil. Let them be confounded because of their shame who say to me, Let all those who seek you rejoice and be glad in you.

Let such as live in your salvation say continually, The Lord be magnified. But I'm poor and needy, yet the Lord thinks upon me. You're my help, my deliverer. Do not delay, O my God. Deliver me. It's interesting to note that this remaining portion of the psalm, these verses are almost exactly the same as we read in Psalm 70, verses 1 through 5.

The greatest adversary of Christ was Satan. and so we see that in the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ Satan actually destroyed himself if God for Christ's sake brought his son to victory over his greatest enemy Satan then we know that he will do the same for those of us who are in Christ Jesus he can attack but he doesn't have any power to condemn we see then this is an argument from the greater to the lesser so take heart weary Christian for although our Savior is routinely mocked and derided today and his provision of redemption is scoffed at with many who would rather laugh and jeer and although his name is used most routinely as a form of cursing there is coming a day when every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father there is coming a day of reckoning there is soon coming a day when all will see that your faith in Jesus Christ, your faith in his work of redemption, is the best object for your faith to be placed. Jesus now allows himself to be known as the gentle shepherd who is yet seeking his lost sheep. But when that last sheep is found, all those who now despise our precious Christ and his ways of redemption are told to beware.

For he will be seen by all as the Lion of Judah, the conquering king. all those who mock him now and deny his truth now will be forever cast into that pit of eternal destruction that David speaks of at the very beginning of this psalm recall that from Old Testament history the story of Noah as Noah built the ark he preached and warned the people of his day that God's flood of judgment was coming but what did they do? they laughed and they scoffed at him rain? what's that? and yet the flood came and just as Noah God honoring preachers today stand and as it were pound the nails into the ark of salvation the flood is coming The flood of God wrath is coming Turn to Christ Flee to Christ The flood of His wrath is coming. And people, as they laughed at Noah, they laughed at the preachers of His word. But God-honoring preachers still preach, still warn of the coming judgment of God and the final response of God's judgment against all sin. yet today people will laugh and they'll scoff and they'll try to prove away with science or the wisdom of the world or the arrogance of their own claims of disbelief listen to Stephen Fry sometime that Christ and his redemption are nothing but fable and myth but every one of them everyone will be carried away in the coming flood of God's eternal wrath and destruction And listen, dear friend, it's not too late.

For with all the earnestness that I can have, with the pounding of the nails again of the gospel, in your hearing the gospel arc of Jesus Christ, if you stand apart from him, flee to Christ today. Because the flood of God's wrath is coming. Your laughter, your mocking, your confident unbelief will all too soon be turned into the eternal cries and groans of the everlasting damned in hell.

Be assured that our God will avenge his son and he will save all those who flee to him yet today. Flee to Christ if you stand apart from him. In verse 16, let all who seek you. Here's the wonderful hope of the promise to the unsaved. Christ prays that those who come to God for forgiveness of their sins will forego his judgment and be saved. This is why Christ came, that he might redeem us from the pit.

He groaned that we might sing and was covered with bloody sweat that we might be anointed with the oil of gladness, says Spurgeon. You can be forgiven today. You can be saved today. Christian, see the further comforting truth that this is also the wonderful promise for those of us when we find ourselves in a time of trial. Let all that seek you be joyful and be glad in you.

Jesus' prayer is that people would find continual encouragement and refreshment in their relationship with God through Christ. As Reformed theologian Pierce states, let them be refreshed with thy life-giving presence. Let them be warmed in their own minds with a sense of enjoyment of thy everlasting love. You see, no matter the circumstance of the Christian, the love of God is steadfast and unchanging.

As we seek God in the midst of the storms of our lives, he will be found. Our greatest need of salvation has been given to us by God our Father, and this should cause us to overflow with praise and thanksgiving to him The true Christian knows what it means to magnify the Lord The true Christian knows what it means to bless him for being too wonderful for words To wish that we did have a thousand tongues so that when it came to praising him, we could only begin to do so just adequately. I don't wish for a thousand tongues.

I'll have enough trouble controlling this one tongue. But I'll tell you this, saints, when it comes to me being able to worship God for what he's done for me and what he saved me from, I do wish I had a thousand tongues that I could sing his praise. We've been brought into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. We've been taken from the pit and redeemed.

Our feet have been placed upon the firm foundation, the rock of Christ. This is why we sing, redeemed, how I love to proclaim it. Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, redeemed and so happy in Jesus his child and forever I am that's faith that's what faith encourages with but the reality of this truth doesn't take away the reality of life look at the last verse I am poor and needy I am poor and needy but what? but he thinks of me this phrase is a fixed expression in Old Testament language while the meaning is generally literal with financial poverty and such the phrase also may be used to express a total dependency upon God that's why Job could say though he slay me yet will I trust him here again we're taken to verse 4 where we read blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust God alone is the source of true happiness and only a saving relationship with him brings such happiness this fact never changes and runs through all times runs through all seasons which is why Plumer rightly says the blessings coming on him who trusts in the Lord are multiform.

They're countless. They're endless. They're immeasurable. David reminds himself of one of those great blessings. Even though I'm in distress the Lord thinks on me. And in verse number 5 his thoughts towards us are innumerable.

Just consider that truth for a moment. Notice the tense is present telling us that it's an ongoing activity. God is thinking about you. This means that there's not a time that the Lord doesn't think about you or think about me personally. He that keeps the vastness of the universe to serve at his own pleasure is consistently thinking of each of his children personally.

He hasn't forgotten you. He that turns the mighty rivers and bends them where he wants them to go, turns all the small rivers of his sovereign plan for each of his children, and he does so for their good because he's always thinking about you. There's no event too small or no matter or concern too insignificant for our God not to care because he's always thinking about you as Jay states he who thinks upon you is a God at hand and not far off he has all events under his control he is the God of all grace the text says that he thinks of me there no time that God ceases to think about you It amazingly comforting isn it In his thoughts he knows right He knows wrong.

He knows right when to bring deliverance. He knows right when to bring us out of our distress or the heartache that we're facing. He knows how much we can take. He knows how much we need in order to make us look more like his precious son. be assured weary saint no matter what you're going through today no matter what we might face tomorrow your God is in heaven he has not forgotten you he's thinking about you right now he's thinking of you he redeemed you from the pit he will not abandon you now model the prayer of Christ you will again be brought to rejoice in your God and in his faithfulness and by way of application Psalm 40 teaches us so many lessons to wait patiently in prayer to rejoice that we've been saved from the pit to praise God for the truth that he's too wonderful for us to comprehend and yet certainly the messianic portions of this psalm are the most significant that Christ came in the flesh in order that he might redeem us and that in light of his own suffering he teaches us how to pray in our times of suffering from the life of Christ we see that his suffering had purpose it was never wasted and neither is yours by God's sovereign grace through faith in Christ Jesus he makes the same promise to us our suffering is never wasted pray as Christ did pray for God's tender mercies pray for his loving kindness pray for his truth to be known to you at the right time in the right way he will answer you don't give up praying he's thinking about you as the songwriter states hold on my child joy comes in the morning weeping only lasts for the night hold on my child joy comes in the morning the darkest hour that means dawn is just in sight would you pray with me Father thank you so much for our time together thank you for these precious people this precious church.

Lord, we commend them to you and pray for your will to be accomplished. Even in this day, for those who are struggling and suffering in the loss and feeling the grief of death, Lord, we pray for your mercies and we pray for your comfort. How thankful we are that we don't base our comfort only upon our feelings of you, but on our faith in you. So, Father, I pray that you would have your will in your way with each one of us. that you would keep us faithful to you at all times for the sake and the glory of Christ.

We pray these things in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen.