Fourth Truth: Jesus Suffered - Psalm 40:6-10

Good morning. Can I just say that I love LaRue time. It's great. As an Irish guy, I like LaRue time. It works for me. We'll see how we do at 1020, but if you have your Bible, would you turn again to Psalm 40?

We've been looking at Psalm 40 together. And for the sake of just reminding us, I'll just begin at verse 1. I waited patiently for the Lord, and He inclined to me, and He heard my cry. he also brought me up out of a horrible pit out of the miry clay set my feet upon a rock and established my steps he's put a new song in my mouth praise to our god many will see it and fear and will trust in the lord blessed is that man who makes the lord his trust and does not respect the proud nor such as turn aside to idols oh sorry to lies many oh lord my god are your wonderful works which you have done, and your thoughts toward us cannot be recounted to you in order.

If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered. Sacrifice and offering you do not desire. My ears you have opened. Burnt offering and sin offering you do not require. 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 within my heart. I have proclaimed the good news of righteousness in the great assembly. Indeed, 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 in your salvation. I have not concealed your loving kindness and your truth from the great assembly.

Do not withhold your tender mercies from me, O Lord. Let your loving kindness and your truth continually preserve me, for innumerable evils have surrounded me. My iniquities have overtaken me so that I'm not able to look up. They are more than the hairs of my head. Therefore, my heart fails me. 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 wish me evil. Let them be confounded because of their shame who say to me, aha, aha. Let all those who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. Let such as love your salvation say continually the Lord be magnified that I am poor and needy yet the Lord thinks upon me you're my help my deliverer do not delay oh my God so we continue in Psalm 40 in our trusted truths and trials and we recall that in terms of its themes this psalm could be divided again into two sections verses one through five the section of praise and thanksgiving to the Lord and then And the second portion is a prayer of response in light of God's deliverance as we were speaking yesterday from the pit.

But the second section also contains something richer for us as we read the psalm because it slips into the messianic portion, whose subject, of course, is Jesus Christ, as we see in verses 6 through 10. So Ross states of these sections, the sequence of this psalm may be worded as a series of principles, Divine intervention inspires genuine praise. And genuine praise leads to personal dedication.

And personal dedication is essential to prayer. So that, too, is also the cycle of the Christian life, as we were talking about on Friday, I think Friday night. Divine intervention inspires genuine praise. genuine praise leads to personal dedication, and spiritual dedication is essential to prayer. It leads us to further prayer. So before we proceed, see a familiar framework in how Ross describes the psalm.

He says that David is actually using the pattern, which is a pattern that I use all the time. Perhaps you've noticed at the conclusion of a sermon, I always say something to this effect. Now, by way of application. By way of application is important for us because it's the reminder that we're not just supposed to be hearers of these truths. We're supposed to be doers.

We're supposed to do something with what we've heard. It's a biblical pattern. I remember when we were driving back from Florida some time ago. My daughter was probably 11 or 12, and my wife was asleep in the car, and my son was asleep in the car. and then this little voice from the back seat, Daddy? I said, yes. She said, do you know what people like best when you preach?

I'm thinking to myself, well, what's this? I said, no, honey, what? She knew she had me hook, line, and sinker. I said, no, honey, what? She said, we like it best when you say by way of application. I'm like, wow.

And I said, you do, honey? I said, why do you think it's like that? She goes, because we know you just have about 10 minutes left. She got me. But the biblical pattern is application. You know, I've grown up in the church.

God's been kind to me. I know in my own life, and I think I can speak for most of us as Christians, the greatest problem for us in Christianity is not what we know. It's what we don't do with what we know. It's this issue of application. And so the biblical pattern is for us to hear the truth and then do something with that truth. We have to apply the truth.

So preaching, counseling, teaching the word of God all have a purpose. It's not just to puff us up with knowledge. The word of God is supposed to help us to grow and to change We supposed to be routinely convicted as we read the scriptures We supposed to be convicted as we hear the preaching of the Word of God Yes, we're going to be edified, we're going to be comforted.

All this happens as the Word of God is proclaimed. In our church we use Colossians 128 as our theme verse. Christ we preach, counseling every man and teaching every man. Why? So that we can present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. See, brothers and sisters, we cannot remain static after hearing the word of God.

For those of us who are Christians, as a result of hearing the word, we're either going to be a little bit more like Christ or we're going to be a little less like Christ. We're going to be a little more because we're going to apply what it is that we've heard or we're going to be a little less because we're not going to do anything with it. But we'll always be responding to the word.

That's the issue. we can say to ourselves, well, I got some better information today. For what? If it doesn't help us to look a little bit more like Jesus. For those who aren't Christians, they will either be brought closer to responding to the gospel or they'll become a little more entrenched in the hardness of their own hearts. This doesn't mean that God can't eventually break this hardness or work past the forfeiting of the Christian. it just means that we're never neutral when we hear the word of God you're going to respond to the word of God that you've heard this weekend and so will I the preacher doesn't just preach to others he preaches to himself first so we're going to respond to these things so in our last session we considered the truth that God is too wonderful for us I just love it God is too wonderful for us remember what David writes in Psalm 139 and 6 when speaking about God and his ways.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It's too high. I cannot attain unto it. And so the context of this familiar passage to us is David speaking about God's character and God's sovereign control and his ways are too wonderful. And do you know what that brings? That truth brings to us as Christians when we ask the right questions, it brings to us peace.

And David says, just remember this David says that there are things which he chooses not to concern himself with consequently as Christians we should work to emulate David's humility and we should express our thanks to God for what we do know what we do know of his character what we do know of his ways through both general and special revelation we should express thanks and even joyous expectation over those things that we cannot yet understand of God and his ways and these are the only serve only as evidences to us of his holiness and of his wonder so such humility doesn't cause us greater doubt but rather only serves to increase our faith god is too wonderful for us so in verses six through ten david next comes to this topic of again the incomprehensibility of god which is most amazing seen in christ's incarnation and so in this session let's think through the following points. Let's talk about number one, heartless worship. Number two, the incarnation.

And number three, Christ's perfect obedience. And by God's kindness, we'll be finished with that at 1019. Don't, don't, make 1020, 1020. Number one, heartless worship. So look at verse six, sacrifice and offering you do not desire. Sacrifice and offering you do not desire.

Now, although David authored this psalm, we've said all along that it's got messianic components. And again, we know this because Psalm 40 is quoted in Hebrews chapter 10, which speaks both of the incarnation of Christ and the earthly ministry of Christ. So it's another of the psalms in which we can see both David and the Lord as the dual subjects. And again, David, the lesser light, and the Lord, the greater light.

It would be easy to speak of just the perspective of David here in responding to God's redemption from the pit. For it's due to that work of God that he recognizes gratitude and dedication are the appropriate applications to the response of these truths for God's love and his goodness. He knows that empty sacrifice, he knows that empty offerings performed out of duty with a heartless repetition are not proper ways in which to acknowledge God's act of redemption. worship can just become a heartless habit for us can it and we have to avoid that as the saints of god david avoids that they're not proper ways to respond to the character of god and to his way sometimes if you say you know oh gosh that worship is so boring or that pastor is so boring maybe the pastor is boring it might be we were saying last night that i remember growing up in church and You know, church wasn't designed around whether or not you would be bored, but I had every brick counted in that church, in the wall.

I could tell you exactly how many bricks. The slats in the roof were wood slats. I had every one of those counted, 121. I had every one of those counted. You grow up in church, but you're learning something. You're learning how to listen.

You're learning how to sit at peace. You're learning what it is to come into the context of the worship of God. But as adults, when we come, listen, most often the problem isn't what's going on up here. The problem is what's going on in here. If we came prepared to worship this God of whom Psalm 40 is speaking, if we came prepared to worship this God who's too wonderful for us, if we came knowing that there are things about God that we can't understand and he deserves our praise and our worship, it would be pretty hard for a pastor to be boring. now there are some boring pastors and maybe you're saying you're one of them but even still if the word of god is being given guess what i love this illustration you all know what a tuning fork is right guys we used to tune a piano with a tuning fork come in with a raft of those and strike it and it hits the key of c or hits the key of f do you know this that if you have a tuning fork let say a tuning fork to the key of C and then you have D E F G tuning forks and you strike that tuning fork to the key of C, guess what's going to happen to D, E, F, and G?

Nothing. They remain silent. But if you strike that tuning fork to the key of C, and there's another tuning fork close to that one, guess what it begins to do? It begins to sing. It begins to reverberate with the key of C. Isn't that amazing?

Strike the one and the other sings. That's worship. When the Word of God is struck up here, the tuning fork, you know what should happen in our hearts? We should just start to sing. It doesn't matter how the delivery, it counts. This isn't a homiletics class.

We get it, okay? You understand where I'm going with this. If we come in ready and the word of God is struck, our hearts are going to sing. So maybe, maybe we ought to do a little more prep work when we come into the worship of God. Maybe, as the saints of God, we should stop making the responsibility of how I worship to the people on the platform and what I'm doing before I get here and what I'm doing while I'm here in the pew.

We need this heart work of worship. Because the Bible is telling us, sacrifice and offering you do not desire. God isn't interested in the mere form. Without the necessary heart work. David speaks of that important truth elsewhere, doesn't he? Especially in Psalm 51.

But David and his service are not the final subjects even of this section. Jesus is. And David is being brought to speak of the wonders of the incarnation. The wonders of the work of Christ, the heart-filled worship that Christ gives as he walked this planet. So we have to see that this particular section finds its fullest meaning in speaking of Jesus, describing not only his incarnation, but his willing obedience to the Father's will.

Appropriate, I guess, on what is known as Palm Sunday for us to be thinking about these truths. Another translation of this verse reads, This last sentence is the literal rendering of the Hebrew. You have dug ears for me. Spurgeon states in this verse, Here we enter upon the most wonderful passages in the whole of the Old Testament. A passage in which the incarnate Son of God is seen not through a glass darkly, but as it were face to face.

How so? Redemptive history would eventually come to the point where the sacrifices of animals would become unsatisfactory before the face of God. The best of the ceremonial law could not ultimately care for the totality of the sins of God's people. Remember that the Old Testament saints were saved in the way that New Testament saints are, that is by faith, by faith in the coming Messiah.

But the expression of their faith in the coming Messiah, seen in the multitude of sacrifices pointing to Christ, would necessarily end when Jesus came. We see that with Jesus' advent, the time had come when God would no longer be satisfied with the sacrifices of blood and the bulls and goats or the offerings of corn, wine, and oil. Such sacrifices and offerings were from their inception only temporary.

Christ came to offer a sacrifice once and for all. He came to do a heart-filled mission for his Father. or Spurgeon says typically these offerings had their worth but when Jesus the antitype came when he came to the world they ceased to be of value as candles are no estimation when the sun arises once Christ came in the incarnation the Old Testament system of sacrifice was being brought to an end and Christ's offering was given with his whole heart to the Father on our behalf So listen to the way that the Holy Spirit guides David into speaking of the incarnation. That's our second point in verse 6.

You have dug out ears for me. David's speaking here of the incarnation. The Septuagint renders this, but a body you have prepared for me. This statement is just an expression of the reality of the importance of Christ becoming a man. The incarnation. this word in Latin literally means as you know enfleshment because in Latin carnis is flesh as Shaw describes this the doctrine that the son of God became human as we see in John 1 14 Jesus did just not play at becoming a man but he took on our flesh with all of its problems and with all of its weaknesses if you'll allow me just this I think probably one of the most at least to me poignant examples of the humanity of Christ is in John chapter 6 where he's speaking with his disciples and he gives some really hard truths in John chapter 6.

Right? And Jesus teaches through these truths and what do we read? And the multitudes turned away from him. They walk away. And Jesus in his humanity turns to his disciples and what does he say to them? In essence, are you guys going to leave me too? now to me one of the most poignant expressions of the humanity of christ you know it's not easy to stand up and preach to people things that you know they don't want to hear even jesus in his humanity says this is such hard truth so many people turn your way and walk away and he turns to his disciples are you guys going to leave me too don't think that christ doesn't understand in his humanity how you feel.

Don't think he doesn't understand what it is to walk in a world where you're not accepted or you're not invited to the greatest parties. Jesus understands completely. In the incarnation, the Christian understanding means that Christ was both fully God and fully man It was God will for his son to come in the flesh to be the son of God incarnate Why Simply because of man sin Now you all know this, but where did sin make its first appearance?

Made its first appearance in the Garden of Eden. In Genesis 3, what was the result? Mankind became an enemy of God. God's once perfect image became so distorted in man that he was now rightly called totally depraved. Contrary to popular opinion, mankind is not basically good. He is, as the old saying goes, rotten to the core.

How is it that people could say that mankind, you watch the news for 10 minutes, and yet you say to people, do you think mankind's basically good? I do. Based upon what? But they do. The scriptures tell us something differently. Such a state as we saw from the verses of this psalm means that we're all destined for an eternity in the pit of hell.

But then, throughout the word of God, we're also brought to verses like verse 6, telling us of the promise and the reality in the Old Testament of the coming incarnation of Jesus Christ. Rather than damning all men to judgment for sin, from Genesis 3.15 forward, God promised to send his son to pay the penalty for the sin of his people. Christ's incarnation became the focal point of all history and from that point on all mankind's destiny would be termed by the work of christ through his art is through his incarnation christian remember this the old testament as much as a book of promise and hope which speaks to us of the love and the mercy of god as the new testament is yet how many times have you not heard that the god of the old testament is harsh condemning retributive while the god of the new testament is more loving and gracious and less judging.

I wonder, is that a fair description that we see from Genesis 3.15 on, including the Messianic Psalms? Is that a fair description? Right in the middle of where man fell in the garden, purposely listened to the false counsel of the enemy, the temptation, right there in Genesis 3.15, God shows his compassionate character. In the middle of issuing curses, he issues a promise, someone will come.

A Savior will come. Throughout the whole of the Bible, we see that God is gracious, God is compassionate, God is loving. And he knew that in order for our relationship to be restored to him, and because of his great love for us, Jesus would have to become a man, fulfilling the prophecy that David speaks of here in verse 6. In fact, I would submit to you this.

The place in which we see the greatest display of God's righteous wrath, the place where we see God's judgment, most greatly displayed is not in the Old Testament. It's in the New Testament. You know where? At the cross of Calvary. The Bible says that Jesus Christ willingly became a man that he might become the mediator between God and man. So the incarnation was necessary in order that Christ might effectively redeem sinful humanity by being the sinless sacrifice.

Without Christ's incarnation, we would still be hopelessly lost in our sin, destined for the pit of hell. So while retaining his divinity, Christ became a man in the flesh. Why is that important? Because since Christ came as a man, he could serve as man's substitute and thus die on mankind's behalf as what Paul says in Romans 5, the second Adam. There is no third Adam.

No opportunity of a third Adam. Right? So his life, his sacrifice, he gave as the God-man for the sin of the world. Christ had to come in the flesh that he might die in the flesh and be raised to new life in the flesh. This is how he became both our brother in the flesh and yet he remained our Redeemer, the great I Am, in the flesh. Without this truth, there'd be no possibility for us to be brought out of the pit.

Without this truth, there'd be no reason for the celebration of his birth, his life, his death, his resurrection, and his ascension. Because Christ was born in the flesh, his perfect sinless sacrifice at Calvary satisfied the righteous justice of God and his holy law. Friends, this is why we do celebrate the birth of our Savior. Yes, at Christmas, but not only at Christmas, we celebrate the incarnation of Christ every Lord's Day.

We celebrate the birth, the life, the death, the resurrection, the ascension of Christ every Lord's Day, even as we see at the Lord's table. And given the great need of mankind, this is no meaningless celebration. Christ's human nature gave him an ability to experience suffering and death, an ability to understand by experience what we are experiencing, and an ability to be our substitute sacrifice, which Jesus, as God alone, could not have done.

We needed Jesus to be man, and we needed Jesus to be God. Thus do we read in Hebrews 2, 17 through 18, Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

By being both 100% God and 100% man, Jesus accomplished the redemption of his people by taking upon himself human flesh. This is the wonder of the incarnation. The writer of Hebrews says that to redeem man, God himself would have to come in human form while still retaining his divinity, thus being one man with two natures. Through the incarnation, by the way, those two natures never mixing, through the incarnation, Christ as one person holding these two natures fully and completely at the same time, that of God and man.

The 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith says, The Son of God, the second person in the Holy Trinity, being very God and the eternal God, the brightness of the Father's glory of one substance and equal with him who made the world, who upholdeth and governeth all things he hath made, did when the fullness of time was come. upon himself man's nature with all the essential properties and common infirmities thereof yet without sin being conceived by the holy spirit in the womb of the virgin mary the holy spirit coming down upon her the power of the most high overshadowing her and so was made of a woman of the tribe of judah of the seed of abraham and david according to the scriptures why so that two whole perfect and distinct natures were inseparably joined together in one person without conversion, composition, or confusion, which person is very God and very man, yet one Christ, the only mediator between God and man. It's certainly consistent with what Paul writes in Colossians 1.19. In him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.

And further in Colossians 2.9 he writes, in him, that is Christ, the whole fullness of the deity dwells bodily. Just imagine it. in theology we describe the duality of Christ's natures as the hypostatic union the hypostatic union describes the personal union that exists between Jesus's two natures it comes from the Greek word hypostasis meaning subsistence we see it used in Hebrews 1.3 where Jesus is described as the radiance of the glory of God in the exact imprint of his nature so I don't understand, I'm trying not to do any excursus here but I don't understand Mormonism at all. The uniqueness of Christ.

I sat next to a guy on a plane once flying out west and he was Mormon. And that's just before the days of cell phones and such, you know, earbuds where you sit down and you don't say anything to anybody on the plane. It's the weirdest thing. You sit for four or five hours next to someone and you don't speak to them. But for an Irishman, that's hard. you know but now you look like those guys in the Geico commercials right if you talk to people they're like no no you don't know them don't talk to them I hate those commercials anyway and I said to this Mormon guy as we were talking together you know what I don't understand about Mormonism he said what is it I said I don't understand what you do with the uniqueness of Jesus you know what he said to me yeah I don't get that either so I took opportunity we were going to Southside I think at the time it was a fire church and I found out where he lived and I said hey go to this church they may be able to teach you some things about Christ that fit what the Bible says see the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature is the person of Jesus Christ and so the author of Hebrews uses this word in reference to the oneness of God evidencing that the Father and the Son are of the same nature for Jesus is the exact imprint of his nature.

This means that Jesus is the God-man, two complete natures, fully human, fully divine, not mixing. These natures are united in the one person. He is one person with two distinct natures. So the hypostatic union is the joining of the divine nature of God and the human nature of man, both fully and the person of Christ. We read of that in John 1.14 with the incarnation of Christ.

The Word became what? the Word became flesh. See that the Word of God did not merely appear to be a human being. He actually became flesh. So important because only God in human flesh could do what Jesus came to do. It takes us to our third point. And that is to speak of Christ's perfect obedience.

We see it in verses 7 and 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. This is the messianic portion of Psalm 40. Here we see the necessity of Christ's incarnation.

He became obedient to the Father. This is the fuller statement in speaking of ears being dug out for him. This means that Christ came and willingly listened and obeyed the Father's will. It wasn heartless It was full of love for the Father At the time of the writing of this text there was a custom of slaves who refused the opportunity to go free And so what they would do is they would have their ears bored as a token of their lifelong willing servitude to their master.

We read of this in Exodus 21.6. And so what would happen, the willing servant said, I don't want to be free, I want to serve you. So the willing servant had his ear put against the wall and it was pierced through with an awl to mark his lifelong service to his master. Spurgeon is so helpful when he says, Jesus Christ is here in all probability, speaking of himself as being forever for our sakes the willing servant of God.

Let us dwell on that for a moment. Ages ago, long before the things which are seen had begun to exist, Jesus had entered into covenant with his Father that he would become the servant of servants for our sakes all through the long ages. He never reneged on that compact. Though the Savior knew the pierce of pardon was his blood, his pity never withdrew, for his ear had been pierced.

He had become for our sakes the lifelong servant of God. He loved his spouse, the church. He loved his dear sons. you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you