Let's begin our service opening our Bibles to 1 John, the book of 1 John 2. We'll read the first five verses of 1 John 2. My little children, these things write I unto you, that you sin not. And if any man sin, We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. And he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word in him, keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected. Hereby know we that we are in Him. O Thou in whose presence my soul cakely lies, On whom in affliction I call, I comfort by day, and my soul my hope, my salvation, my all. Where dost thou, dear shepherd, resort with thy sheep? Say, why in the valley of death should I weep, or alone in this wilderness roam? O why should I wander, an alien from thee, or cry in the desert for bread? Thy foes will rejoice, and smile at the tears I have shed. He looked, and in thousands of angels us wait for his word. He speaks with his voice, re-echoes the praise of the Lord. of thy voice. Restore and defend thee, for thou art my all, and in thee I will ever rejoice. Let's turn back to 102. 102. Born among cattle in poverty sore, Living in meekness by Galilee's shore. Dying in shame as the wicked one swore. Jesus, wonderful Savior! Jesus, He is my friend. Through to the end, He gave Himself to redeem me. Wonderful Lord. Weary yet He is, the world's only rest, Hungry and thirsty, with plenty has blessed. Tempted, He promises grace for each death. Jesus, wonderful Lord, wonderful Lord. He is my friend, true to the end. He gave himself to redeem me. Jesus, wonderful Lord, Friend of the friendless, betrayed and denied. Help of the weak, in Gethsemane he cried. Light of the world, in gross darkness he died. ♪ Jesus, wonderful Lord ♪ ♪ Wonderful, wonderful Jesus ♪ ♪ He is my friend, true to thee ♪ All right. The Bible is down to Psalm 109. Psalm 109. This is a very, very sobering psalm we have to look at tonight. Psalm begins verse 1. Psalm 109. Hold not thy peace, O God of my praise. For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me. They have spoken against me with a lying tongue. They compassed me about also with words of hatred and fought against me without a cause. For my love they are my adversaries, but I give myself unto prayer. And they have rewarded me evil for good and hatred for my love. Set thou a wicked man over him and let Satan stand at his right hand. When he shall be judged, let him be condemned, and let his prayer become sin. Let his days be few, and let another take his office. Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow. Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg. Let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places. Let the extortioner catch all that he hath, and let the stranger spoil his labor. Let there be none to extend mercy unto him. Neither let there be any to favor his fatherless children. Let his posterity be cut off. And in the generation following, let their name be blotted out. Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the Lord. Let not the sin of his mother be blotted out. Let them be before the Lord continually that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth. Because that he remembered not to show mercy. but persecuted the poor and needy man, that he might even slay the broken in heart. As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him. As he delighted not in blessing, so let it be far from him. As he clothed himself with cursing, like as with his garment, so let it come into his bowels like water, and like oil into his bones. Let it be unto him as the garment which covereth him. And for a girl wherewith he is girded continually, Let this be the reward of mine adversaries from the Lord, and of them that speak against my soul. But do thou for me, O God the Lord, for thy namesake. Because thy mercy is good, deliver thou me. For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me. I am gone like a shadow when it declineth. I am tossed up and down as the locust. My knees are weak through fasting. and my flesh faileth of fatness. I am become as a reproach unto them. When they looked upon me, they shaked their heads. Help me, O Lord, my God. O save me according to thy mercy, that they may know that this is thy hand, that thou, the Lord, hast done it. Let them curse, but bless thou. When they arise, let them be ashamed, but let thy servant rejoice. Let mine adversaries be clothed with shame, and let them cover themselves with their own confusion, as with the mantle. I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth. Yea, I'll praise him among the multitude, for he shall stand at the right hand of the poor, to save him from those that condemn his soul. God for his word. Let's bow together. Our holy, sovereign, Almighty, merciful and gracious Heavenly Father, we bow in your presence this evening, a thankful people. Thankful in your mercy and your grace to your people. You have provided for us an advocate, one who can speak for us because he has done for us. He has done everything that you have required of your people. It's all in our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, how thankful we are. How thankful we are that You didn't leave one thing undone that we must do in order to have Your mercy, Your grace, Your favor, Your salvation. But that You sent Your Son to do it all. To pay all the debt that we owe. And to make us accepted in Him. In His obedience, washed in His blood. Father, how I thank You. We couldn't have salvation, righteousness, life, peace with God any other way than in our Lord Jesus Christ. And we're thankful that You've put it all in Him. And Father, it is our earnest plea this evening that You give us an hour of worship. Let the name of Christ our Savior be lifted up and magnified and extolled. And give Your people eyes to see Him a heart that would believe and be thrilled at the sight of Him. Enable us to return back to our homes, ready to go back out into the rest of our week rejoicing in Christ our Savior and strengthened in His might. Feed our souls tonight through the preaching of Your Word, we pray. And what we pray for ourselves, Father, we pray for all of Your people who are meeting together tonight to worship. Bless your word, Father. Get glory to your name and bless the hearts of your people. Father, how can we even begin to thank you for how richly that you blessed us? We dare not forget to thank you. And we also never get far from the fact that in this flesh, we are poor and a needy people. We need you every hour. every minute, every second. Father, we pray a special blessing that you'd especially strengthen your people that you brought into a time of trouble. Those who are sick and hurting and need you especially. We pray for Judy that you'd undertaken her behalf. Pray for Gene as he faces surgery later this week. Others, Father, who are in such desperate places physically. We pray you'd undertake in their behalf. Father, again, we beg of thee that in this hour, you'd speak to us through your word. Don't leave us to ourselves, but enable us to hear your word in worship, we pray, for you are worthy of our worship and our praise. It's in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we ask these great blessings and we give thanks. Hey, please, turn to 100, sing a song with me. We don't get to sing them that often, just a few times a year. Let's sing it with me. O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant, Come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem. Come and behold Him, born the King of angels. O come, let us adore Him. O come, let us adore Him. O come, let us adore Him. the Lord. Sing, choirs of angels, sing in exultation. Sing, all ye bridles of heaven above. Glory to God, all glory in the highest. O come, let us adore Him. O come, let us adore Him O come, let us adore Him Yea, Lord, we greet Thee, Born this happy morning, Jesus, to Thee be all glory given. Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing, O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him O come, let us adore Him Alright, let's open our Bibles again now to Psalm 109. As I said a few moments ago, this is a very, very sobering psalm. Titled, the message Christ speaks for and against. Now the common belief in our day is that God loves everybody. People will look at you like you've absolutely lost your mind if you tell them otherwise. absolute given. God loves everybody. And since God loves everybody, God gives everybody a chance to be saved. But any honest reading of God's Word tells you that's not so. Another common belief in our day is that all religion is okay. They say it's good for people to be religious as long as their religion promotes people being nice, you know. All religion is okay. It's okay if somebody living in this town does not come here and hear the gospel. They say it's perfectly okay as long as they go someplace, any place, as long as it goes under the name of a church. It'll be okay for them. It'll be good. It could be good for them. God could save them. As long as they go under the name of Christianity or Baptist or something, it's good. And people think that. Because they really don't think that people are preaching a lie. I mean, especially if they go under the name of Christianity, if they go under the name Baptist, surely they're not preaching a lie. They're good people. But scripture says that they are preaching a lie, doesn't it? The Apostle Paul said they're preaching another Jesus. They use the same terminology, but they're preaching another Jesus, not the Lord Jesus Christ of this book. And fallen human nature just eats that up like candy. Fallen human nature loves that warm, fuzzy feeling that we get from thinking that God loves everybody, God wouldn't hurt anybody. They've been deceived by Satan into believing that lie. And scripture, our scripture we'll look at this evening, makes it as plain as the noonday sun that God does not love everyone. Our psalm tonight begins with Christ. He's speaking through David. David's the one who penned this psalm, but this is Christ speaking. And he's speaking against some people. That's how he begins this psalm. And the bulk of this psalm is taken up with Christ speaking against some people. This is the advocate. But here he begins speaking as the prosecuting attorney. And clearly he does not love these people that he's speaking against. He has no intention of saving these people. The Lord condemns them. He condemns them who do not believe him. He condemns those who will not bow to him. He condemns those that do not need him. He condemns those that lie on them. He makes it plain. He does not love them. He prays for their eternal damnation. I mean, this is serious, serious business. That's going to happen. That has happened. I mean, serious, serious business. All right, verse one. Maybe that got your attention. Got mine, I'll tell you that. He says, hold not thy peace, O God of my praise. This is David writing, but this is the Lord Jesus Christ speaking. He's speaking from the cross. And he says to his father, do not stay silent about this crucifixion. Do not stay silent about the sacrifice of your son. Because of this sacrifice, speak against your enemies and speak for your people. Now, the father is not indifferent about his son. He's not indifferent about the son ever. He's especially not indifferent, if I can say it that way, about the sacrifice of his son. He is not indifferent about whether or not sinners believe on his son and love his son. I mean, Sean, are you indifferent about people if they hate your children? I mean, I'm not. How much more the Holy Father? We ought not be indifferent about this matter of believing Christ, bowing to Him. Because first, He condemns those that lie on the Lord Jesus Christ, God's Son. He says in verse 2, For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against Me. They spoken against me with a lying tongue. They compassed me about also with words of hatred and fought against me without a cause. You remember when the Pharisees held the mock trial that they used to condemn our Lord. In order to do that, they had to go out and find witnesses who were willing to lie on him because they hated him without a cause. There was no just charge that they could bring against him. The Lord Jesus, never did any of those things that he was accused of at all. But you also remember this, don't you? Against all those false charges, he held his peace, didn't he? He never defended himself. And he didn't defend himself because he had become guilty of all those charges, because he had become guilty of the sin of his people. But that will not excuse those who lied on the Lord to put him to death. God's sovereignty never excuses man's sin. People do stuff and they know it's wrong. They know it's sinful. They say, well, God's sovereign. If He didn't mean for me to do it, He would have stopped it. God's sovereignty never excuses man's sin. God's sovereignty never excuses us to not believe Christ. God's sovereignty never excuses us not coming to Christ. But this is talking about more than just those there at the cross. This is talking about everyone who lies on God, even today. False preachers who say God loves everyone and Christ died for everyone have opened their mouth with a lying tongue. They're telling people a lie. And you think of the damage that that lie does to the character of God. That means that God sends people to hell, even though he loves them. I mean, I'm really telling truth. I'm not all that interested in that kind of love. It's monstrous. That lie destroys God's character and it sends people to hell. They say that Christ died for everyone. Christ died for people to go to hell anyway. then Christ's sacrifice is largely a failure. I mean, what they're saying is, God's Son is largely a failure. He promised to save a people. That angel said he's going to save his people from their sin. Well, if all his people are the whole wide world, he's largely a failure, isn't he? That doesn't give a sinner much reason to trust in the Lord. I just don't feel compelled at all to trust that Jesus, do you? If God loves everyone and Christ died for everyone, then man suffered, not God. I mean, isn't that right? God is not the one who decides who's saved, is it? No, man does. And man is sovereign, not God. And that's a lie. I mean, why would you worship a God that's not sovereign? You wouldn't. You wouldn't. The only God we'll ever worship is sovereign. We can't get him. We can't influence him to do anything. That's the only God we'll worship, the one who's sovereign. That's a serious lie. And the Lord condemns it. Second, he condemns those that do not love his son. Verse four, he said, for my love, they are my adversaries. I give myself unto prayer and they have rewarded me evil for good and hatred for my love. Now, the Lord Jesus never did do anything but good. He will always help people. He never did never do anything evil, never did anything wrong, never did anything for his own benefit. Yet religious people hated him. Oh, they hated him. And the same thing's true today. Christ came to show us the love of God for sinners. And man hates him for it. Now, I know people don't hate the God that loves everybody. But they hate the Lord Jesus Christ as he has been pleased to reveal himself in this book. Christ came to save his people from their sin. Christ came to save God's elect and only God's elect. That's sovereign love. That is God loving who He will. And Christ came to show God's love by being the propitiation here in His love. Not that we love God, but He loved us. How do we know He loved us? He sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sin. Christ came to show God's sovereign love for sinners. That God would save sinners who sinned against Him. That's the best news I ever heard. And man by nature hates it. More accurately, they hate the God who loves whom He will. And Christ speaks against them. Because He hates them too. That's right. I can show you that. Look at Psalm 139. He hates them too. Isn't Esau the prime example of that? Jacob have I loved. Esau have I hated. Pretty clear from that, God doesn't love everybody. Esau have I hated. Look what he says here in Psalm 139 verse 19. Surely thou shalt slay the wicked, O God. Depart from me, therefore, ye bloody men. For they speak against thee wickedly, and thine enemies take thy name in vain. Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? And I grieve with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred. I count them mine enemies. Now, yes, David wrote this. And yes, God's people feel this way. We hate those that hate the Lord. But now this can only be Christ speaking here, because look what he says next. Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. You're going to say that, huh? Only Christ can say this is Christ speaking. And he says, I hate them. I hate them with a perfect hatred. He condemns those that do not love him. I thirdly, he says, let them let those who hate me, let those who I hate that do not love me, let them be condemned. Let them be eternally damned. He says, beginning verse six, set thou a wicked man over him and let Satan stand at his right hand. But he shall be judged. Let him be condemned. The Savior says he will not stand with these people in judgment. He's not going to stand as their advocate. He says, Let Satan stand with them. Satan's the accuser of the brethren. He said, let Satan stand with them. Let him stand right at his right hand. What's Satan going to do? He's not going to defend him. He's going to accuse him. Let the accuser stand right there beside him. Oh, I don't want that. Oh, that sounds harsh, doesn't it? Let the accuser stand with them. That sounds harsh because the end result of that is going to be damnation. To appear before God without a mediator, without an advocate? Well, he cannot here be talking about those people that God loves. He can't be. He cannot here be talking about the people for whom Christ died. Otherwise he'd be their advocate. If any man sinned, we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. He's talking about those who do not believe him, who've rejected him and hate him. Now we know from Acts chapter one, what Peter said that he quoted these verses here. We know this is a prophecy of Judas betraying the Lord. We know that. But it applies to everyone who, like Judas, rejects the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ, just like Judas did. All right. Fourthly, he condemns them and he says, let their religion be sin. Let that thing that they use to try to come before God, let it be their sin. End of verse 6, he said, let their prayer become sin. Now the people that the Lord is talking about here are religious. But their religion is not good in any way. It's no good. It is not good that a person hear a false gospel and believe it. It's not good that somebody just goes anywhere that calls itself a church. It's not good. Their gospel's a lie. Their prayer, it's become sin to them. It's just adding to their sin. The Lord says, it's sin. I mean, you know, maybe we don't want to call that in our, you know, refined day. God Almighty says, it's sin. This other Jesus that they're preaching, that's not salvation. There's no forgiveness there. There's no righteousness there. All there is, is sin. And the Lord here is saying, give them to just wages, given exactly what they earned for their sin. Eternal death. That's what he's praying. And this religion, it's sin. All it can produce is death. Their religion cannot produce spiritual life. Look at verse 8. Let their days, or his days, be few, and let another take his office. Let his children be fatherless and his wife a widow. Let his children be continually vagabonds and beg. Let them seek their bread also out of the desolate places. This is what the Lord's saying. Let them die and let their children be orphans. Let their wives be widows. Sounds harsh, doesn't it, Wayne? That's God's holy judgment. God's holy judgment. And let me just say this at this point. This will never happen to the family of God. God is our father. So the believer can never, ever be an orphan. The believer can never be an orphan with nobody to love them. Nobody take care of them. Nobody to teach them. David said, I've been young and now I'm old. And I'll tell you one thing I've never seen. I've never seen God's children begging bread. He always takes care of them. And Christ is our husband. He's the bridegroom. So the believer is never a widow with nobody to provide for her, nobody to love her, nobody to take her in his arms. Christ is our husband. But these people that the Lord is praying about here are obviously not in the family of God and they're not loved by God. And he says, they want their works religion, they don't want grace, let them labor in it. Verse 11, let the extortioner catch all that he hath, and let the stranger spoil his labor. Let there be none to extend mercy unto him, neither let there be any to favor his fatherless children. Now the word extortioner, David uses here, that's a mighty good word for works religion, isn't it? I mean, it's a mighty good word. Much to Janice's dismay, I love cop shows. I mean, I love them. I just love watching a cop show. Within an hour, we got this whole thing wrapped up. The bad guy's caught. I mean, I just love it. And a common guy they're trying to catch in all the different cop shows is an extortioner. Extortioner. And they're always telling somebody, sending them a secret message, saying, now you do what I say. I'm going to expose you. I know a secret about you, and I'm going to expose you. I've kidnapped one of your children. You do what I say, I'm going to kill him. Maybe they'll say, well, I haven't kidnapped him yet. If you don't do it, I'm going to kill your child. That's an extortioner. Isn't that works religion? Isn't that legal religion? I was born in January in Michigan. They have winter there in Michigan. And I just a few weeks old, had no business going out in public. And my mother told me, oh, we took you to church. We took, we were afraid God kill you if you didn't. It's extortioner, isn't it? You come to the worship service and kill your child. That's an extortioner. The Lord here says, let them be under that extortioner. Let them be under it. Let them lose everything they've got to that extortioner. because they chose the extortioner over Christ the Savior. He said, come unto me, I'll give you rest. Come, learn of me, my yoke is easy, my burden is light. Come, you got a debt, I'll pay it. Just confess yourself, bring it, I'll pay it. Instead, they went to the law. They wanted their own righteousness and rejected Christ. This is what the Lord is saying here. Let them labor under that extortioner. and let him take everything he's got. Then he says, let their name be blotted out of the Lamb's book of life, verse 13. Let his posterity be cut off and let the generation following, and in the generation following, let their name be blotted out. Let their name be blotted out of your book. Now, no one can, it's not possible that someone's name can be recorded in the Lamb's book of life and then God blotted out. It's impossible for that to happen. If that happened, that would mean one of two things. God changed somehow, but changed. He quit loving somebody. He changed. His love's immutable. God's immutable. He can't change. So it's impossible for someone's name to be recorded in the Lamb's book of life and blotted out. What this means is their name never was in that book in the first place. God never did choose them. God never did love them. God never did redeem them. And they will be eternally dead. Then he says, Father, never forget their sin. Verse 14, let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the Lord and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out. Let there be before the Lord continually that he may be cut off, that he may be cut off the memory, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth. Now, if the Lord remembers and he marks iniquity, crucial statement, None. Nobody. They'll be damned if the Lord remembers and marks iniquities. You notice the big difference here between what the Lord prays for His people and He prays against these others? The Lord promises His people, their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. And the Father will remember them no more because the blood of Christ has blotted out the sin of His people. But that promise is not made to everybody, is it? These people, the Lord says, remember their sin. Mark their sin that they be cut off. Remember the sin of these people. These people are not my sheep. They believe not because they're not my sheep. They haven't been born again. Verse 16. Because that he remembered not to show mercy. I mean, see, the Lord's not just randomly praying against somebody here and saying, condemn them and mark their sin and remember their sins. It's not a random thing. There's a reason for it. Because he remembered not to show mercy, but persecuted the poor and needy man, that he might even slay the broken in heart. Now you remember, I hope, in our study of the Beatitudes, we heard the Lord say, blessed are the merciful. they shall obtain mercy. I told you over and over and over again in the study there that the Beatitudes, that's not the Lord telling us how we should live. That's not the Lord telling us what we have to do in order to be saved. In the Beatitudes, the Lord is telling us what he has already made his people to be. When God saves them, he causes them to be born again. They're born with a new nature, a believer, somebody who believes Christ. Somebody who trusts Christ, somebody who says the Lord Jesus Christ is my Savior. That person's a merciful person. They have to be because they utterly depend on God's mercy in Christ. Then they're going to be a merciful person because that's the nature that they received in the new birth. Well, these people are not merciful. Then what does that mean? That means they're not God's sheep. Christ died for who? The sheep. sheep to follow you. These people are not sheep that God's not caused them to be born again in the new birth. And he says, let them be damned. And it'll be their own fault. It'd be their fault because of their sin. All right. Seventh, he says to the father, give them what they wanted or 17 as he loved cursing. So let it come unto him as he delighted, not in blessing. So let it be far from him. as he clothed himself with cursing like as with his garment. So let it come in his bowels like water and like oil into his bones. Let it be unto him as the garment which covereth him and for a girdle wherewith he is girded continually. Let this be the reward of mine adversaries from the Lord and of them that speak evil against my soul. This is what the Lord's saying. They didn't want my obedience. They didn't want my righteousness. They want their own righteousness. then let them have it. That's what he said. Let them have what they wanted. They wanted all their good works, their own good works to be their righteousness. He says, let them have it. But their good works are sin. Their good works, you and I might see them as good works. You know what God sees them as? Cursing and lies. You see somebody just, you know, some of these false preachers and stuff. I know on the outside they might I mean, some of them are just horrible, but you know, some of them, they might look pretty good, but God sees it. God sees what they're doing is cursing. They're not blessing God. They're cursing God. They're not blessing people. They're cursing people. They're not giving them Christ the truth or lies. That's what God sees. And Christ says, let them have it. Let them be covered in it since that's what they want. My, my, my. That about wore me out, didn't you? Scares me to death, too, doesn't you? Scares me to death. When I hear Christ speak against these people, He's done that. He's done it. In the day of judgment, He's going to do it again. This is a real thing now. These ones He speaks against will be damned. I don't want to be in that boat, do you? I don't want to be those people. See, these people, they don't have anybody else to speak for them. They're left on their own. So what does that make the believer do? What about you? I'll tell you what it does to me. It makes me cry, God be merciful to me. Look at verse 21. But do thou. I mean, I love to just go through Scripture and find the word but. Oh, this has been such darkness and death and judgment. Boy, this word but swings the door wide open to God's grace. But, but, do thou for me, O God the Lord, for thy name's sake, because thy mercy is good, deliver thou me. See, the believer says, Lord, speak for me. Lord, you said if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. Lord, speak for me. Speak for me. I need you to speak for me. But you notice what the psalmist says here. Do. Don't just speak for me, but do for me. Do for me. Lord, do everything it takes to save my sorry soul. Do everything for me that I can't do for myself. And what is that? Everything. Lord, do everything for me. And Lord, I got no claims on you. So do it for your mercy's sake. Lord, save me, not for my goodness, but for your mercy's sake. Lord, save a sinner like me, so you'll get to glory in doing it. If you can save a sinner like me, you're going to get glory, because you've done a job if you save somebody like me. Lord, get glory to your name, both when you destroy your enemies and when you save and lift up your people. Get glory to your name. Glorify both your justice and your mercy. And Lord have mercy on me. Give glory to him, but have mercy. Now that's a good prayer. The Lord will answer that prayer. And Christ the Savior, He can speak for His people. It's because of what He's done for them. Because of what He's done. Now here's what Christ did for His people. He sacrificed Himself for their redemption. That's what He did. Christ can speak to His Father and say, Father, forgive me. They know not what they do because of what He's done for them. Because He shed His blood to put away their sin, He can say, Father, forgive them. He can say, Father, accept them in me because of what He's done for them. His perfect obedience to law. He can say, Father, accept them in me. He can say, Father, give them life because of what He's done for His people. He died for their sin as their substitute so He can say, Father give them life. What he says to the Father is all the result of what he's done for his people. Now listen to Christ speak from the cross as he does for his people. Verse 22. He says, For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me. I'm gone like a shadow when it declineth. I'm tossed up and down as a locust. My knees are weak through fasting, and my flesh faileth of fatness. Now the Lord here, he says, I am poor and needy. How can the Lord of glory say he is poor and needy? Well, because on the cross he was. When Christ was made sin for his people, he became poor of righteousness. He traded his righteousness for the sin of his people and he became poor of righteousness. When he gave up the ghost and died, he became poor of life, didn't he? He didn't have any, he died. And he did that so that his people would be made rich through his poverty. God's elect are made rich in righteousness. Okay, well how rich is rich? The righteousness of God is perfect. God's elect are made rich in life. Their life is eternal life. Their sin has been blotted out. God remembers it no more. Because Christ died for us. Look what he says, verse 25. I became also reproached unto them. When they looked upon me, they shaked their heads. Now you just think of all those who passed by that Passover weekend. All those people coming to Jerusalem. Just like Christmas time, all those people ride a bus to New York City. All these people are going, riding a bus. I mean, the crowd coming to Jerusalem. And they pass by, and they see this crucifixion going on. Now, they're in a hurry. They're in a hurry. I've got to get here on time. I've got to go in here and get my lamb. I've got to do what I'm doing on time. And they just pass by. All of human history is pointing to this moment. That middle man on that cross. And they just passed on by. I'm in a hurry. And they thought to themselves, they wagged their heads as they went on, and told his wife, boy, that man back there, suffering, he had to be an awful sinner. He must have been an awful sinner for God Almighty to do that to him. For God to allow that to happen, he had to be an awful sinner. Little did he know. Little did he know. God had made that man on that middle cross to be all of the sin of all of God's elect, a number no man can number. And there he suffered. And almost everybody had no idea what was going on. The Savior cries. I know most people, they pass by, they see a suffering, they don't think it's anything. But the Savior cries to his Father, and he says, let my people, let my people see why I'm suffering. Verse 26. Help me, O Lord, my God. He's crying as a man. Help me. Give me strength to accomplish this sacrifice. Help me, O Lord, my God. Save me according to thy mercy, that they may know that this is thy hand, that thou, the Lord, hast done it. See, the Savior wants his people to know, the Father, reveal this to them. I'm not suffering because of anything. I did. I didn't do anything to deserve this suffering. Let my people know. So their hearts will be comforted. Let my people know. So when they hear this, they'll be drawn to me, lifted up, that I'm suffering for their sin. It's their substitute. And by my suffering, I'm putting it away. This suffering is their salvation. Father, let them see that. Let them see that their hope of mercy, their hope of forgiveness is found in my suffering for their sin. Now, as we pass by tonight, you've heard, you hear about Christ on the cross in every single service that we have here. I ask you, behold, is it nothing to you, all you that pass by? Behold and see, is there any sorrow like unto our Savior's sorrow, which is done unto him, or with the Lord? Father hath afflicted him on the day of his fierce anger. Behold, and look, now is it nothing to you? Are you going to be indifferent to it? Man did not cause the cross. It's something that you hear frequently. Who is responsible for the death of Jesus? Is it the Jews or is it the Romans? Yes. I'll tell you who's responsible. for the death of Christ. And the executioner was not the Romans. This is what he's saying. Let my people know that the father, you've done this to me. So they'll know you're satisfied with my sacrifice. So they'll come to me to be washed in my blood, to find salvation for their sin. And when The sacrifice was made when the price was paid. The father did save him, deliver him according to God's mercy, according to God's justice. The father delivered his son from that suffering when sin was paid for. And we see Christ raised from the dead. You know what we see? He was delivered from suffering. He was delivered from death. So we know for certain that the sacrifice of Christ justified everybody for whom He died. I want to come to Him, don't you? That's the Savior I need. That's the Savior I'll bow to. And once that transaction is complete, now Christ can speak for His people. Sin's gone. So He can say to His Father, Father, remember there are sins no more. They're blotted out under my blood. See, Christ can speak for His people because of what He's done for them in His obedience and His sacrifice. and Christ doing, and Christ speaking for us. That's our only hope of salvation. So here's our conclusion, verse 28. Let them curse, but bless thou. When they arise, let them be ashamed, but let thy servant rejoice. Let mine adversaries be clothed with shame, and let them cover themselves with their own confusion as with a mantle. Let the wicked curse. Just let them say what they want. You can't stop them. You can't stop them. Just let them say what they want. Let the wicked curse me, if that's what they want to do. This is what the Savior is saying, let them curse me. But Lord, you bless me. Lord, you bless me. Who cares what the wicked do? I mean, really, who cares what the wicked do as long as the Lord blesses me? See, the Lord says, let them be covered in their own sin, in their own shame. But Lord, let me be covered in Christ's righteousness. Let me be covered in his blood and let me rejoice in you. Let them rejoice in them if they want to. Let me rejoice in you. That's what he's saying. And Lord, do for me, speak for me so I can praise your name. Verse 30. I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth. May I praise him among the multitude or do for me, speak, speak to the father for me and speak to my heart. so that I can praise your name. And verse 31, for he shall stand at the right hand of the poor to save him from those that condemn his soul. Now the proud, those who are rich, think that they're rich in their own work, their own doing. He says, let Satan stand by his right hand. But what about the poor? What about the one that knows I got nothing to plead? There's nothing about me to recommend me to God. What about him? Christ said, I'll stand at His right hand. I'll be His advocate and I'm going to speak for Him. I'm going to speak for Him because I've done for Him. See, the damnation of the wicked, the unbeliever, it's their own fault. They've rejected the Savior. Those in hell have nobody to blame but themselves. They can't say, I'm here because God didn't choose me. They can't say, you know, I'm here because Christ wouldn't die for me. They're going to be damned because they refuse to believe on the one. who's ready to save the needy, who need saving. And this is the good news. This is the promise of the Savior. He will save every sinner who needs saving. He'll save the needy. Are you needy? Come to Christ. He said he saves the needy. Has the Lord been merciful to you? Has he spoken? He done for you. He's spoken to the Father. He's spoken to your heart. The Lord done for you. You've been merciful. then let's greatly praise the Lord with our mouth. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. I know that Christ speaks against some folks. That's just. That's just. I can understand it. I sure am thankful he speaks for some folks, aren't you? That's mercy. That's grace. Let's bow together. Our Father, we stand in awe of who you are, your mercy and your grace to your people, that you would find a way to be merciful, not at the expense of your justice. Gracious and still just and right. Father, how we thank you. And Father, I beg of you that you would speak for us tonight, that you would do for us, that you'd speak, that you'd speak to our hearts, that you'd be our intercessor with the Father. that you be merciful and gracious. We are a poor and a needy people. Oh, be our Savior. Be merciful and gracious. Get glory to your name. Father, I beg of you, you get glory to your name in making your mercy and your grace to your people shine forth from this place. That you call your people to Christ the Savior. We'll give you the thanks Praise and honor and the glory for it, for it all belongs to you. It's in Christ's precious name that we pray and give thanks. Amen. Now to 274. Stand and sing, please. 274. Earthly friends may prove untrue Doubts and fears assail One still loves and cares for you One who will not fail Jesus never fails. Jesus never fails. Heaven and earth may pass away, but Jesus never fails. Though the sky be dark and drear, Fierce and strong again, Just remember He is near and he will not fail. Jesus never fails. Jesus never fails. Heaven and earth may pass away, But Jesus never fails. In life's dark and bitter hour, Love will still prevail. Trust His everlasting power, Jesus will not fail. Jesus never fails. Jesus.