Series: Psalm
Title: Faith and Love of Christ
Text: Ps 69: 1- 36
Date: August 27, 2020
Place: SGBC,NJ
What is the message that God blesses in that first hour to
make a dead sinner live and submit in faith to Christ as all their
salvation? It is the preaching of Christ
and him crucified.
What makes a brand-new babe in Christ have a desire to live
in godliness to honor God? It is the
message that makes them behold Christ living in perfect obedience to make us
righteous.
What brings a believer to behold our sin and
self-righteousness to be against God? What creates in us indignation against
our own selves to take revenge on our own disobedience? It is the gospel wherein we behold Christ in
sovereign, unchanging love, bearing our judgment and the judgment of our
brethren on the cross, by whom God is faithful and just to show us mercy and forgive
all our sin.
What makes the weak dying believer face death with a good
hope that all is well with my soul? It
the message that makes them behold Christ in whom they have already died and
risen and been given the victory!
I want every message I preach to
be the good news of Christ and him crucified.
I want this message to be that good news. Brother Henry said, “Read your text then
skedaddle to Christ.” In Psalm 69 we
don’t have to skedaddle far. This is
holy ground. We could hear this every
day. David was used of God to pen this
Psalm but this is Christ speaking as he bore suffering and shame for his elect
satisfying justice and bringing in everlasting righteousness for us while he
glorified God to the highest.
Title: The Faith and Love of Christ
Proposition: Believers
born of God walk by faith in Christ constrained by the love of Christ—faith
which worketh by love. Here we see Christ’s
faith and Christ’s love by which his people are saved.
CHRIST’S FAITH
Psalm 69: 1: Save me, O God;
This is one of the most incredible cries ever uttered in
the earth. I say “one of the most”
because another is in Psalm 22: 1. Martin
Luther read Christ cry, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Then
Luther threw up his hands and said, “God forsaken by God, who can understand
it!” Our text is God crying, “Save
me, O God.” Who can understand it!
Christ Jesus—Jesus of Nazareth—that Man crucified over 2000
years ago—that Man now seated on his throne of honor in heavenly Jerusalem—is
God—God in human flesh like unto his brethren.
Hebrews 1: 8: But unto the Son [God] saith,
Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is
the sceptre of thy kingdom. 9: Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated
iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil
of gladness above thy fellows.
Our text is God crying “Save me, O God!” This one who is all God and all Man like unto
his brethren. He cries this while bearing
the weight of all the sin and curse of his elect. He cries this cry of faith when the furnace
of affliction was heated seven times in the perfection of divine justice. This
was when sinners would have cried in disobedience at far less. But Christ
cries in perfect faith from a righteous and holy heart, “Save me, O
God!”
FAITH TO WAIT FOR THE ACCEPTABLE TIME
Psalm 69: 3: I am weary of my crying: my
throat is dried: mine eyes fail while I wait for my God….13: But as for me, my
prayer is unto thee, O LORD, in an acceptable time: O God, in the
multitude of thy mercy hear me, in the truth of thy salvation.
We see Christ’s faithfulness in that he cried this when he
was bearing sin and judgment. Our Lord
in perfect faith was content to suffer.
He was content to suffer under his Father’s hand. Christ was content to suffer the cruel cross until
mercy and truth were met in harmony. He
was content to wait on God his Father until God’s justice was perfectly
satisfied toward all his people. He
waited so that God can be merciful to all his people in accordance with his
holiness.
Faith waits
on God even when in sorrow—“I am weary of my crying.” Faith is not natural sight—"my
throat is dried: mine eyes fail.” Faith
is “I wait for my God.” How hard
it is to wait on God. May God give us
grace and faith to wait on God. His time
is the acceptable time.
FAITH
IN WAITING TO BE DELIVERED
Psalm
69: 14: Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink: let me be delivered
from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters. 15: Let not the waterflood
overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut her
mouth upon me.
We see
Christ’s faith in waiting for the Father to deliver him. As a servant Christ depended upon God his
Father—in perfect fidelity—trusting him alone to deliver. He cried to be delivered out of the mire. Christ cried to be delivered from those who hated him. He asked to be delivered out of the deep
waters of justice and the pit of the grave.
And as Christ waited in perfect faith he glorified the attributes and
blessings of God that his people are saved by.
All God’s attributes are magnified in Christ. Here are three:
· Lovingkindness—Psalm
69: 16: Hear me, O LORD; for thy lovingkindness is good:
· God’s tender mercies—Psalm
69: 16…turn unto me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies. 17: And
hide not thy face from thy servant; for I am in trouble: hear me speedily.
18 Draw nigh unto my soul, and redeem
it: deliver me because of mine enemies.
· God’s omniscience—Psalm
69: 19: Thou hast known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonour: mine
adversaries are all before thee.
FAITH
IN WAITING ALONE
Psalm
69: 20: Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked
for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters,
but I found none.
Lastly, we
see Christ’s faithfulness in treading the wine press all alone. He had no one to help him. His disciples fled. His Father forsook him in justice as his just
and holy God.
Therefore,
in Christ’s cry every child of God beholds “The Author and Finisher of our
faith.” In Christ we behold our righteousness,
our holiness, our perfect obedience. The
grace and mercy and love by which we are saved is in this cry, “Save me, O
God!” This is the “faith of Christ”
by which all God’s elect are justified through “faith in Christ.”
Galatians 2: 16: Knowing that a man is not
justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we
have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of
Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no
flesh be justified.
THE LOVE OF CHRIST FOR SINNERS
Psalm 69: 2: I sink in deep mire, where there is no
standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me….4: They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head:
they that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty: then I
restored that which I took not away.
In order
to see the love of God remember what God saw in every person’s sin
nature—including the sinful flesh of his elect for whom he came.
Genesis 6: 5: And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was
great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his
heart was only evil continually.
Christ came to save chosen sinners whose “every
imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” against
him. Our fall came by one transgression. Our justification was from a multitude of
transgressions. I think it was M’Cheyne
that figured this. But taking only sins
of heart which we sin every second of every day is 86,400 sins a day. That is 31,536,000 sins a year. At 75 years old it comes to 2 billion, 365
million, 200 hundred thousand sins in thought only. That is one
elect child in thought only. Yet, knowing what great sinners his people are
1 John 3: 16: Hereby perceive we
the love of God, because he laid down his life for us
Herein is love, God came down
from the highest glory to the lowest parts of the earth and willingly put
himself under the law that his people broke and lived 33 years under that law
for us. Imagine
that! Imagine denying ourselves by
living in a stinking trash dump with sinners opposing you at every turn for 33
years to provide perfect obedience for a people whose every imagination of the
thought their hearts was only evil continually against you. That is what Christ
did for the multitude of his elect—"They that hate me without a cause
are more than the hairs of mine head: they that would destroy me, being mine
enemies wrongfully, are mighty: then I restored that which I took not away.”
He restored the communion of his
people with God which he did not take away because it was our sins that
separated us from our God. He restored
in us a reverence and admiration for God’s glory which he took not away. He restored life in us—eternal life—which he
took not away. Christ fulfilled the law, he never broke. He satisfied justice he never offended. We see love because in order to restore us, he who knew no
sin, was made sin for us and "endured the cross despising the shame” of
our sin. It is what Christ mean when he
said, "I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into
deep waters, where the floods overflow me.”
A few years ago I mailed out an article every day for a
year. Brother Don said it was the
hardest thing he ever did. I agree. With travel and my other work load, it was
hard. But in one article I described our
sin using some very gross images.
Someone said it was too vivid. But
I got each one from the scripture. This
is one of them. “I sink in deep mire.” In David’s day, they would dig a hole in the
ground with a dirt bottom and put multiple prisoners in it. The rains filled it
with mud and water. Human waste filled it. That is the picture our Lord used to describe
the shame of the sins of his people that he bore. He found us on “the dung heap”; all our righteousness’s
are as “filthy rags”; our sins are an “abomination to God”; we were the baby cast
out, abandoned in a field, polluted in our own blood. These are vivid descriptions of the vileness our
sin is. It was the sin he was bearing
that Christ despised.
Hebrews 12:2
Look unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy
that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down
at the right hand of the throne of God.
Imagine if every sin of your heart was open for the whole
world to see. Can you imagine how
ashamed you would be? That gives us some
idea of how shameful our sin was to our sin-bearer.
LOVE
IN INTERCESSION FOR HIS PEOPLE
Ps
69: 5 O God, thou knowest my
foolishness; and my sins are not hid from thee. 6: Let not them that wait on
thee, O Lord GOD of hosts, be ashamed for my sake: let not those that seek thee
be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel. 7: Because for thy sake I have
borne reproach; shame hath covered my face. 8: I am become a stranger unto my
brethren, and an alien unto my mother’s children. 9: For the zeal of thine
house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are
fallen upon me. 10: When I wept, and chastened my soul with fasting, that was
to my reproach. 11: I made sackcloth also my garment; and I became a proverb to
them. 12: They that sit in the gate speak against me; and I was the song of the
drunkards.
In order
for God to be just—to manifest God’s righteousness—to declare God the just
Judge, our sinless Savior willingly came to us and took our shameful sin on
himself and our sins became his. When he
saw his elect in the shame of our sin, he did not stand aloof—did not
disassociate from us. His love for us
never wavered. He came to where we are, took
our sin and bore our shameful, shameful sin.
Then gave himself to bear justice on our behalf so that we might walk
away without condemnation. When he did
so everyone disassociated from him and reproached him—from the most
self-righteous to the basest—even we, for whom he died.
Isaiah 53: 4: Surely he hath borne our griefs,
and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 5: But
he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the
chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
But notice
while he bore our shame he was concerned for his people. He interceded that we not be ashamed of his
shame. Not only did Christ identify with
his people and bear our shame and reproach, he interceded for us that we would
not be ashamed and confounded for his sake—"Let not them that wait on
thee, O Lord GOD of hosts, be ashamed for my sake: let not those that seek thee
be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel. Because for thy sake I have borne
reproach; shame hath covered my face..”
Our Savior’s death as our substitute was not a cold,
unfeeling, legal transaction. He was touched with the feeling of our
infirmities. This is not only how Christ
bore away the sin of his people and justified us from all our sins, this is how
our Savior knows how to restore us when we are in the mire of our sin and abhor
it. This is how he knows how to humble
us, turn us from our sins and comfort us in the assurance that we are saved
from it.
Since he is our great High Priest able to succor us in
trials, he says in verse 32-33, “The humble shall see this,
and be glad: and your heart shall live that seek God. For the LORD
heareth the poor, and despiseth not his prisoners.”
LOVE FOR US IN JUDGMENT
Psalm 69: 21: They gave me also gall for
my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. 22: Let their table become a snare before
them: and that which should have been for their welfare, let
it become a trap. 23: Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not; and
make their loins continually to shake. 24: Pour out thine indignation upon
them, and let thy wrathful anger take hold of them. 25: Let their habitation be
desolate; and let none dwell in their tents. 26: For they persecute him
whom thou hast smitten; and they talk to the grief of those whom thou hast
wounded. 27: Add iniquity unto their iniquity: and let them not come into thy
righteousness. 28: Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not
be written with the righteous.
We see here Christ’s love for his
people in saving us from those who would wound us with overmuch sorrow at those
times when God uses them to correct us.
This is a warning and instruction to us when our Lord would use us to
rebuke and correct a fellow brother overtaken in a fault.
Pious, holy
men did what God ordained to be done in crucifying our Substitute. But it was God who did it. He used them to accomplish his will in the
crucifixion of his Son. But God always
does the chastening. It would have been
for their own welfare had they been willing to submit to Christ. But these men crucified Christ convinced they
were doing it for the glory of God; convinced they were right; convinced Christ
was a sinner. We are often convinced we
are right, especially when we feel wronged.
But we can be the one who is wrong.
So what did
those men do? With wicked hands they
slew the one God sent. Though this was
the will of God, they had in their hearts that they alone were doing it and
they had in their hearts to go beyond what God ordained. They were puffed up in pride thinking it was
their place to smite Christ and wound him.
So Christ prayed that their religion be a snare and a trap and their
eyes be blinded and God’s anger be poured out on them because “they
persecute him whom thou hast smitten; and they talk to the grief of those whom thou
hast wounded.” Their sin was they persecuted him whom God had
smitten. They talked about Christ to his
grief causing him overmuch sorrow when it was God wounding Christ.
What does this mean for us? Loving our brethren may involve God using us to rebuke a
brother for whom Christ died. But God
will make his child temper loving rebuke with mercy. He will not let us go beyond what God has
ordained. He certainly will not allow us
to think we are making the chastening effectual. God alone gets the glory for making his
people willing, not we ourselves.
Remember, after rebuking the man at Corinth
Paul told the Corinthians to receive him lest they cause the brother “overmuch sorrow.” The purpose of correction is not to tear down
but to build up. If we become puffed up
to go beyond what God ordained in the rebuke of a brother then God will chasten
the one he uses to do the rebuking. This
is why Paul said that as we restore a brother we should consider ourselves lest
we also be overtaken in a fault. The fault we are all prone to be overtaken in
is pride and self-righteousness—thinking ourselves righteous judges. There is one Judge!
Here is an example of a man going too far. God used the Assyrian to chasten Israel. But the Assyrians wanted to go further than
God ordained saying,
Isaiah 10: 11: Shall I not, as I have done unto
Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols? 12: Wherefore it shall
come to pass, that when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon
mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the
king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks. 13: For he saith, By the
strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I am prudent:
and I have removed the bounds of the people, and have robbed their treasures,
and I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man:…15: Shall the
axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? or shall the saw
magnify itself against him that shaketh it? as if the rod should shake itself
against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself,
as if it were no wood. 16: Therefore shall the Lord, the Lord of hosts,
send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory he shall kindle a burning
like the burning of a fire.
For the child who attempts to go beyond and cause overmuch
sorrow, God will chasten and humble him.
But for those who are not his, Christ shall call for judgment that they
be turned over to reprobation and the earth swallow them up.
So by God’s grace, by
Christ formed in us, we walk by faith in Christ trusting his faithfulness alone
who made us righteous and holy. We do
all constrained by his love which makes his child lay down our lives and bear
one another’s sins, restore and love our erring brethren to Christ as Christ
did for us.
1 John 3: 14: We know that we have
passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his
brother abideth in death. 15: Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and
ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. 16: Hereby perceive
we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay
down our lives for the brethren. 17: But whoso hath this world’s good, and
seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him,
how dwelleth the love of God in him? 18: My little children, let us not love in
word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. 19: And hereby we know that
we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him.
Do I really want to walk as
Christ walked? Then let me love as
Christ loved. Christ fulfilled justice for us. Therefore he does not call for us to lay down
our lives unto death under divine justice.
But he does call for us to bear the sins and shortcomings of our
brethren, that is, to put up with one another, covering one another’s sin. We are to show mercy and forgive, even as God
for Christ’s sake has forgiven us. Am I
hurt by a brother? Do I feel
betrayed? Is my trust betrayed? I can be sure whatever a brother has done to
me, I have done it to Christ. Yet, God
forgives me for Christ’s sake.
Therefore, Christ says, “Love one another, as I have loved you.”
Amen!