All right, thank you for your singing this morning. Psalm 22, Psalm 22 is where we want to be this morning. And while you're turning there, I have my water, not in a fancy container, but wet nonetheless. Just a quick reminder, I mentioned DIG classes do begin after this service today. Also as a part of that, I failed to mention, anyone interested in membership, if during the Sunday school time, instead of going to a Sunday school class, just meet with me in here, and we'll spend a little bit of time together talking about that. Alright, so anyone interested in that, we'll look forward to our time together. Psalm 22. This morning, as you can see, we are going to be celebrating the Lord's Table. And I think it's fitting that we celebrate the Lord's table at the same time as we are also seeking to remember our theme for 2025. I apologize, it's not yet on the wall. It was supposed to have been here by now, but I can't control some things. So it will be here, Lord willing, it'll show up tomorrow, and we will put that on the wall as soon as we get it. But we are going to talk, we're talking about only trusting Him, but we're going to do that looking at Psalm 22. And Psalm 22 is a very important psalm. It is a very important passage of Scripture. It fits in perfectly with the Lord's table. And I think you'll see why here in just a few minutes if you don't already know. If you look at verse 1, you probably get a fairly good idea about why this psalm might fit in with our preparing our hearts for the Lord's table. Because there's a statement there, a sentence that you probably know better from the New Testament and yet here we find it a thousand years before Christ spoke it being written by none other than David himself. This is a prophetic psalm. This is a psalm that gives us a prophecy of Christ and it is a thousand years before. I think that is a testimony to the reality that this book is none other than the revealed Word of God to us that we could find with such specificity a thousand years ahead of time. The Lord speaking through David, telling us exactly what our Savior suffered on the cross, giving us an indication at least, as much as we could understand it, and some of the words or ideas or attitudes that He met during that time. So the Lord's table, as we come to it, reminds us that our salvation was purchased by Him and by Him alone. We can trust no other. And so our theme for this year, only trust Him. The Lord's table should remind us of that truth, and I hope this psalm will be one that will enable us to see this from the Old Testament and be encouraged both in the revelation of Scripture and in the promise of God's care for us. So let's open our time together with a word of prayer, shall we? Our Father, we are so grateful for the opportunity we have to gather together here on this Sunday morning Lord, we're thankful that we have the opportunity to set aside all the things of the world that might distract us, that we can, for this time, focus our hearts and our minds upon eternal truth, and that we can look in this psalm, a psalm that gives us such a clear picture of what our Savior suffered and how He suffered, that He might pay the penalty for our sin, that He might redeem us with His own blood. Father, we're so thankful for what this psalm tells us, for what it teaches us, for the picture it provides for us. And Lord, as we are preparing our hearts for your table, for the communion service this morning, I pray that this message will be uplifting and encouraging. I pray, Lord, that it would draw from us that act of faith where we can say we are only trusting Him But, Lord, to the extent that we might be convicted of sin, I pray that this passage would do just that. That, Lord, You would bring to our minds, if there's some sin within our hearts that we need to deal with today, that we would not push it aside, compartmentalize it, but that, Father, by Your grace, we would deal with it before You today. And Lord, that we would experience the wonders of Your promise of forgiveness, of cleansing, even as believers. So help us to honor You and to worship You in our time in Your Word here today. We pray this in Christ's name and for His sake. Amen. I want to ask you to, in your mind's eye, take a little trip with me to a time almost 2,000 years ago on the day of the resurrection on a dusty road between Jerusalem and a little town called Emmaus. Two disciples were walking along. They were discussing the events of the last few days and how perplexed they were about everything that had happened. And while they walked along, a third person joined with them. Not recognizing who he was, they explained to him about their confusion about all these events. And this third person, who was none other than the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ, in Luke 24, beginning in verse 25, he said this to them, Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself." You know, I cannot imagine a better seminary teacher than the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Can you imagine? He Himself opens up the Scripture. The Scripture would have been only the Old Testament at that time. And out of the Old Testament, He demonstrates to them all the things that had been said about Messiah. That brings us to Psalm 22 because I am convinced that as our Lord spoke to those two men, as He opened up the scriptures to them on that day, that He would have made reference. Among other passages, He would have opened up to them. I think it is without debate that he would have touched upon Psalm 22 to them. This is a psalm that speaks of the suffering of Messiah in the first 21 verses and then the glory that he would enjoy in the second part of the psalm. On one level, when we read Psalm 22, we have to understand it was written by David. And it would refer on a human level to some event in the life of David, probably when he was being pursued by Saul. So, David is writing about his experience when he is being pursued by Saul. That is what would have been moving David initially to pen this particular psalm. However, we have to make this observation. There is no situation recorded in Scripture where David went through the trials that are listed here to the degree that this Psalm describes. We can find nowhere in Scripture that matches any event in David's life with any specificity to what we find described here in Psalm 22. In fact, what we see happening here, and I think the New Testament parallels to this make this very clear to us, is that David is going beyond himself. He is applying things prophetically to his son, Messiah, Christ. To do justice to the psalm then, we must leave David's experience and we have to focus on how it applies to that son of David who would be the Lord Jesus Christ. This psalm describes a death by crucifixion. Now, for you and me living in 21st century America, we know about crucifixion. Not because it's practiced today, but because as Christians, we've heard about crucifixion for the last 2,000 years. But understand, crucifixion was not something that had been always practiced. Even at the time of Christ, crucifixion was a few hundred years old. Crucifixion was not being practiced when David wrote this psalm. It was an unknown torture and means of execution. When we think about it, here is David writing about a mode of execution that was unknown to him. So when he makes these statements and we say, oh, that sounds like crucifixion, he is writing that not because he's familiar with crucifixion, but because under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, what he is describing is clearly describing a crucifixion event. Now, that doesn't surprise us when we connect this psalm prophetically to our Lord Jesus Christ. Here then, as many have said when they talk about Psalm 22, this is holy ground. Because this is a psalm written by David a thousand years before Messiah, a thousand years before Christ. And he is describing the very event that was necessary for salvation to be purchased for the likes of you and me. If you've ever wondered what Jesus actually said in the Garden of Gethsemane, have you ever wondered about that? The Gospels give us a synopsis. When he says, you know, if it were possible for this cup to pass from me, etc. We're only hearing a few words, not everything Jesus said is necessarily recorded in the Gospels during the time on Gethsemane. immediately before Judas comes and we have the whole arrest and then the false trials and leading up to the crucifixion. But when you come to Psalm 22, I think we get a much fuller picture of what Jesus said on the cross and leading up to that in the Garden of Gethsemane as He wrestles with bearing our sins. Folks, I've said this before in different ways. I always feel inadequate to preach. You know, I'll be honest, there's a term coined these days, you know, imposter syndrome, you know, about somebody who is doing a job but doesn't feel like he really should be the one doing that job, he doesn't feel adequate to do that job. Well, whether it's imposter syndrome or whatever modern psychology might call it, There is something daunting about anyone standing in the pulpit and preaching or anyone standing in a lectern and teaching and purporting to say, this is what God says. It should be daunting. It should be intimidating. It's not something that we should just take license to do and say, well, bless God, I'm called to preach, so you need to listen to what I say. I am a weak, fallible vessel. which is why I challenge you, never take anything you hear from me or anyone else in this pulpit or in any other class in this school or church and take that as God's truth. Be like the Bereans and you study it for yourself to see whether these things are so. You have the Holy Spirit indwelling you. You need to be a student of scripture. You need to check what you hear. and you need to compare it with what God's Word says. I don't want to go down this rabbit trail, but folks, you need to be careful the voices you listen to because we live in a day where men have actively tried to erase identifiers. There was a day when you could look at the name of a church and you would know what they believe. Today we've gotten rid of all those identifiers so it's no longer Baptist or Presbyterian or whatever. Now it is some name that is generic that is used by many different denominations. So you look at the name and you don't know what it is they believe. And you may be tempted to be a part of that or to participate with them, but you need to check and make sure that the doctrine they're teaching is the doctrine that you know the Bible teaches. Especially if you let your kids go to some of their activities, you need to be careful. to make sure that what is being taught to your child is what God's Word says. Now, I don't want to go any further down that road, but it is important. I feel inadequate to teach the Scripture, period. Having said that, I feel even less adequate to teach Psalm 22 because this is heavy stuff. And I don't mean to say that to scare you or intimidate you. Rather, I want to strive by the grace of God for you to have some sense of what is happening in this psalm, not only as a lead-in to the Lord's table, but for our benefit, for our encouragement to realize that the God of heaven had a plan. And a thousand years before Jesus came and was crucified, He spells out much of what would be happening in those hours. So we see here something of what our salvation costs the Savior. Though His sufferings go far beyond anything that you and I could ever begin to comprehend, Here we can get a glimpse of the agonies that He endured for us. And the only response, by the way, to what we read in Psalm 22 is to bow in worship and to submit ourselves again to His will. To put it in a word, to be reminded we can only trust Him. Only trust Him. So, two main points this morning. Number one, here is an undeniable fact that you and I must recognize. Christ suffered to provide us salvation. He suffered. The first 21 verses in this psalm are picturing for us this very reality. He suffered. Now, these first 21 verses, the way they would break down, and we're not going to get into the nitty-gritty of this, but just for your benefit, There are three cycles of complaint and confidence. So, over these 21 verses, there are three different sections, if you will, presenting a complaint and then a statement of confidence, and then a complaint and then a statement of confidence, and then another complaint and then a statement of confidence, and then we have the second half of the psalm. By looking at the complaint sections, we can see with prophetic clarity something of Christ's sufferings on the cross. So, as you think about this psalm, think of it this way. Here is Christ. This morning in our memory verse, what were we told about the Word? What are we memorizing in John 1, 1 and 2? The Word is God. And then we're going to find in verse 3, the Word made everything. So here is the Son of God who made everything, the Maker of man, who willingly died for the creature's sin. Now really think that we know this so well that we kind of take it for granted, don't we? I mean, these are formulations. Christ is the Son of God who died for our sins. Yep, that's right, that's what I believe. But the impact of that diminishes, I'm afraid, over time because we're so familiar with the statement. It doesn't hit us with the weight that perhaps should be true of how we are hearing that statement. Let's note what happened to Christ on the cross as we work our way very quickly, I hope, through the first half of this psalm. I want you to notice verse 1. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me and from the words of my roaring? My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Does that sound familiar? Now perhaps you've learned it this way. Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani. Which being interpreted is, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? These are the exact words that Christ spoke on the cross. Matthew 27, verse 46. Christ himself is telling us while he's on the cross that when we come to Psalm 22, this is a psalm that goes far beyond his father David. These are words that David wrote by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to give us a window a thousand years before the fact of what Jesus would suffer. He was forsaken by God. Folks, this is one of the most unfathomable mysteries of the gospel. Have you ever really thought about this? We really can't understand. We can't really know what was involved in God's forsaking Jesus during those three hours of darkness. It is beyond our comprehension. We know that Jesus bore God's curse upon the world's sin and that somehow God in His holiness turned His back upon His Son while He bore that sin. Jesus, the spotless Lamb of God who knew no sin, was made sin on our behalf. II Corinthians 5, verse 21. He bore God's wrath which we deserve, and He was forsaken by God the Father. We can't even begin to understand how God, the unity, the harmony of the Godhead, that somehow God the Father could turn His back on God the Son. It is beyond us to really visualize what that means. Well, we get earthly pictures of families that get divided and children that go no contact with parents, et cetera, but none of that really adequately is a picture. As sad as that may be, that is not even close to the unity in the Godhead. After all, there is but one God in three persons. And God the Father turns His back on God the Son. He is forsaken by God. He bore that wrath, the wrath of God which we deserve. And while the physical agony was terrible, the spiritual agony is infinitely worse. We really can't understand the agony that Jesus had on the cross when He was forsaken by the Father. And the physical part is what we think of first, right? We think of Him bloodied, and beaten, and the crown of thorns, and the lashes on His back, and we describe the horribleness of how He was treated physically. And then the cross itself. And we have in years past talked about the difficulty of someone being crucified, even breathing, because the way that they are on the cross, they have to actually leverage themselves up by the nails in their wrists to manage to get a breath. And you know how you would fight for every breath. Can you imagine that physical agony? That's what we tend to focus on. And it was real. And it was horrible. Folks, that doesn't even begin to compare with the spiritual agony of being forsaken by the Father because of our sin. He became sin for us. The sinless Son of God, the Creator, became sin for the purpose of redeeming the creature. Not sharing His holy nature, we can't imagine what it was like for Jesus to become sin. So we read it, we say, thank God He did this for me, but we really don't understand the price that He paid. It should move us. Part of our coming to the Lord's table is being reminded of His death till He come. And so there's a very real sense that we should be remembering on a regular basis that our salvation did not come cheaply. And the price that was paid to purchase us, to redeem us, was far beyond our ability to even imagine. Number two, his prayers went unanswered. Notice Psalm 22. Oh my God, I cry in the daytime, but Thou hear us not, and in the night season, and am not silent. He cried for deliverance from death, that if possible in the Garden of Gethsemane, that this cup should pass from Him. Yet He was not delivered from death. He was not spared that cup. Now, let me just add a thought here. Did God answer that prayer? Not immediately. He went through death, but He was delivered through resurrection. But he still had to go through the pain, the separation. He still had to face the difficulties. He still suffered. But deliverance would come. It's a reminder for you and me, isn't it? Sometimes we wonder, why isn't God answering my prayers? Well, rest assured, God will answer, but He'll answer in the right time. But we want it to be in our time. We have to trust God, don't we? Only trust Him. How awful it must have been for him who enjoyed unbroken fellowship with the Father to cry out to Him only to have Him not answer. Number three, he was despised and mocked, verses 6 through 8. He says, but I am a worm and no man, a reproach of men, and despised of the people. All they that see me laugh me to scorn, they shoot out the lip, they shake their heads saying, he trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him. Let him deliver him, seeing he delighteth in him. Does that sound familiar? What's interesting here is he calls himself a worm and not a man. A worm is an object of weakness and scorn. You know, this is for sports fans. This is a big weekend, right? Because this is all about football. Yesterday, today, football. How would you like your favorite team to be called the Worms? I mean, we have eagles, we have lions, you know, there are sports teams, tigers, even hurricanes. But worms? That's probably not a team that we would be drawn to support. Hey, we're the mighty worms! Oh, worms are not something we look up to and respect, right? In fact, the worm here was most likely a worm called the cochineal. Now the coconeal worm, what is important about that particular worm is that when crushed, it would produce a scarlet color that was used as a dye. It was used in the tabernacle to dye the part of the coverings and the veils. Jesus was crushed so that His crimson blood would cover our sins. He was a worm. He was a worm who willingly was crushed for you and me. But, you know, from our point of view, From man's point of view, he was scorned and despised. Verses 7 and 8 describe the exact actions and words used by Jesus' enemies. Let me just read this to you in case you didn't catch the echo. In Matthew 27 verse 39, "...and they that pass by..." This is while Jesus is on the cross. "...and they that pass by reviled Him, wagging their heads and saying, Thou that destroyest the temple and buildest it in three days, Save thyself, if thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross. Likewise also the chief priests mocking him with the scribes and elders said, he saved others, himself he cannot save. If he be the king of Israel, let him now come down from the cross and we will believe him. He trusted in God, let him deliver him now, if he will have him, for he said, I am the Son of God. And then you look back in Psalm 22. And David is describing these conditions that the Savior would face, the mocking that He would face a thousand years before it happened. Notice, fourthly, He was overpowered by ferocious men, verses 12 and 13. Many bulls have compassed me, strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. They gaped upon me with their mouths, and as a ravening and roaring lion." His enemies are likened to ferocious animals, bulls, lions, dogs. Bashan, in verse 12, is an area noted for its well-fed bulls, mauled by a lion. This is what Jesus felt like as He hung upon the cross while the Jewish rulers snorted their ridicule and their false accusations. He felt as if He had been mauled by a lion. Can you imagine? Have you ever seen a full-grown lion next to a person? They're not kitty cats. A full-grown lion is hundreds of pounds and as quick as a cat. and one swipe, and you can imagine the damage it would do. That's the picture. How else can this be pictured for us to understand the physical damage that Jesus had experienced as He hung upon that cross? Even though He could have called 10,000 angels or more, He chose to suffer silently. Again, can we really comprehend what that would be like? What is the first thing that we want to do when somebody injures us? Be it verbally or whatever. What is our first impulse? To strike them back. You know, you hit me, I'm gonna hit you, right? I mean, that's the impulse. We want to get even. Can you imagine having suffered all that he suffered? And he could strike back. And yet, he suffered silently. And he did that for you and me. Number five. Oh well, you tried. Number five, he suffered the physical and emotional agony of crucifixion. This is remarkable, folks. Verses 14 through 18. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax, it's melted in the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws, and thou hast brought me into the dust of death. For dogs have compassed me, the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me, they pierced my hands and my feet. I may tell all my bones they look and stare upon me. They part my garments among them and cast lots upon my vesture. Does that sound familiar? Sorry. Very conscientious to try to pull the microphone down because I can't turn too far away from the microphone. Suffered the physical and emotional agony of the crucifixion. As I said earlier, I think this proves the inspiration of the Bible. Hundreds of years before crucifixion is even known, this is written. What do we know about crucifixion? A little historical note. Where does it come from? Where did it start? Well, as best as we can tell, in the fog of history, it probably started with the Medes and Persians. Remember them? Alexander the Great, when he conquered the Persians, seems to have learned it from them and he brought it back into the Mediterranean area. The Romans learned it from the Phoenicians through Carthage and they had all the Carthaginian wars. Remember the wars, the Punic wars and so on? I knew that one guy here would say, I don't know what you're talking about. It was perfected by the Romans. They were great engineers. They were great builders. That's proven, right? You know, there are still Roman roads being used today, 2,000 years later. Do you imagine if the world's here 2,000 years from now, any of our roads will still be being used? I'll just kind of leave that out there, right? They perfected it, and it was reserved for the worst of criminals. Brutal, torturous, humiliating, It was the means of execution that Rome would use when they're trying to send a message. There were other means of execution. And for a Roman citizen, it would be quick and clean. If taking your life is quick and clean, but at least you didn't suffer, right? Notice description. which goes beyond his experience. Verse 14, poured out like water. This points to the excessive perspiration caused by the suffering plus the feeling of weakness as his life slowly ebbed away. It's reflected in the words of Jesus on the cross, I thirst. Verse 14, his bones are out of joint, not literally, but the feeling of being stretched out by the arms as you hang on the cross. We can kind of see how that could be the case. Verse 14 talks about his heart turning to wax and melting. The heart struggles to supply blood to the extremities because, again, you're stretched out and he's bleeding profusely already from the abuse he's already taken. Verse 15, strength dried up like a pot shirt, tongue sticking to the roof of his mouth, weakness as his life ebbed from him, extreme thirst as his body is dehydrated because he's bleeding out. I like verse 15. That's interesting. Somebody wanted a very short message today, right? Notice verse 15. Hopefully it's going to wake back up here in just a second. I'm going to close it and see if that happens. Verse 15 says, He has brought me into the dust of death. The dust of death. That's kind of a poetic description, isn't it? What happens when we die? We're buried in the ground. The dirt, the dust. What does our body turn to in death? Returns back to the dust of the ground from which we came. Here's a description of what is happening to Jesus. That didn't work. I don't have my phone on me either. This is interesting. Sorry. A little technical problems here. And I know there aren't very many Apple people, are there? See, if I had my phone, I could just pull the rest of the message up on my phone, but my phone is on my desk in my office. Not this office, the other office. I have two offices, so. Yeah, I don't know, I still have, you can't see it, but this is still lit up, so I still have power, but this died. Oh well, we'll see how quickly he can come, how quickly I can find it, but here's the point while I'm sadly watching that do nothing. Do you see in these descriptions? These are descriptions of something that can only be true of the cross. This can only be true of someone suffering in that manner. Other means of execution in the time of David don't match what is happening here. So, here we are, a thousand years before Christ, hundreds of years before crucifixion is even known as a thing. Is that, thank you, is that happenstance? I'm asking you. What is our take from this reality? How could it be that David could do that? What is this telling us? It's God's Word, right? I mean, here is God. Okay, come on up now. See, I don't usually do it on my phone, so it's like, OK, is this sort of like the iPad? Does it work the same way it should, right? I have last week's message. We could do the rest of that. Yeah, this is so exciting. These are the things. It's really kind of funny. I was telling my wife this morning. I'm not saying I'm a prophet. But I was telling my wife this morning that the last thing that I, before I woke up this morning, I dreamed of preaching and having two problems. Number one, I wasn't able to shave. Now maybe for most of you that's not a big deal, but either you're gonna have a beard or you're not gonna have a beard. I just can't imagine coming and just not shaving. What I didn't tell her was, the other part of that message was, I didn't have my notes. And it's like, okay, I know what I'm preaching, but there are a lot of points in there that I'm not gonna remember everything. And then this happens and it's like, oh, maybe I should have printed it out on paper like the old days. Then you don't have this problem, unless the wind blows. Well, anyway, part of the problem here is, I probably need to do that. Now you can hear my phone, right? All right, well, suffice it to say this, it's gonna come up the minute that I close and move to the Lord's table, but maybe the Lord's saying, you made your point. So you don't have to keep hitting that nail. So here's what I'm driving at in this psalm. Our Lord suffered. He suffered tremendously. He suffered for you and me. But I want you to notice one other thing, and this is the second point. The second point is, as we recognize and we're forced to acknowledge that Jesus suffered to provide salvation for you and me. That was the first point. The second point is simply this. What is our response? Our response is we can only trust Him. And I want you to notice At the end of verse 15, we have this description of all that's happened to Him, of what we consider the cross, and in the very last part of verse 15, and thou hast brought me into the dust of death. Now, I've talked about the dust of death, but did you see the first part of that statement? Who brought Him to the dust of death? God. God brought him there. Was it a mistake that Jesus died on the cross? Was it a mistake that he suffered as he did? I think I've shared with you years ago, I was listening to a Christian station, this is when I was in West Virginia, and I heard a song, I've never heard it since, so I don't know, it must not be very popular, and maybe the reason is because of what the song said. The song said basically this, the greatest tragedy that the world has ever known was the crucifixion of Jesus. Now let me ask you this question. Was that a tragedy? It was God's will, wasn't it? Well, if it was God's will, it wasn't a tragedy. It was the fulfillment of the plan that God made to provide redemption for sinners like you and me. He died for us on purpose, willingly. It wasn't a tragedy. And we see here He makes this statement, Thou hast brought me. It was the will of the Father that the Son die on the cross and provide redemption for you and me. It wasn't an accident. It wasn't a mistake. He didn't mess up somewhere along the way in his earthly ministry and find himself now in the hands of wicked men being killed. That's why he came. And he repeatedly, in the course of his ministry, told the disciples that, didn't he? Time and again. When we study through the Gospel of Mark, remember? How many times I would point out where Jesus was saying, this is what's gonna happen, and they only heard what they wanted to hear. Funny how that works. And they refuse to really understand or take him seriously. In fact, at one point, Peter says, this isn't going to happen. And remember the words of Jesus in Matthew 16? Get thee behind me, Satan! Now, he wasn't saying that Peter was Satan, but he was saying that Peter was basically mouthing the words of the devil when he contradicted the death that Jesus was going to die. Now what I'm saying is this, it may be, we're talking about how he suffered, it may be when you and I suffer, we have to sometimes take a step back and remember that Jesus suffered. And it was God's will that he suffer. And he willingly suffered. But eventually, did God answer his prayer, and I mentioned that earlier, what did God do? He raised him from the dead. So when you and I suffer, we may not understand why. We may question the moment and say, God, I'm praying, I'm begging you to get me out of this trouble. And will God always remove the trouble in our time plan? Think about the early martyrs. Do you imagine they wish to die? Do you imagine they sat around in a church service and said, well, I hope they come bursting in the back door because I want to die. No, I don't think any of them felt that way. But when it came to the point where they were put on trial for faith in Jesus, and given the option that they could renounce their faith in Jesus and live, or they could obstinately continue to claim faith in this Jewish carpenter and die, what did they do? They died. I am sure that they didn't wish that. I think of Polycarp. When they came for Polycarp, Polycarp had been a disciple of the Apostle John. Polycarp was 86 years old and they came to Polycarp and arrested him and they said, listen, you have a choice. Renounce your faith in this Jesus and however much time you have left, you're 86 years old, you can still live. People who were 86 aren't really saying, I hope that today's it. We all still wanna live, right? But what did he say? Eighty-six years I've served him and he's done me no wrong. I will not renounce him." And they took him and he became a martyr. There was a young lady, I want to say Priscilla. The name escapes me. I think it was Priscilla, but it may be another name. She was a new mother. She'd just had a baby. Her husband was a pagan. She'd gotten saved. She wasn't raised in a Christian home. Her father was a pagan. Her father came while she is jailed and begs her to renounce her faith in Jesus. She's got her baby with her in the jail cell. Other ladies, other Christian ladies are there. They came to get her, to take her to her death. And she takes her baby and she hands it to one of the other ladies and says, would you raise my child, and I'm paraphrasing, would you raise my child in the church as a Christian? And then she turned and marched out into the arena and died. Gave her life for Jesus. Did she want to do that? No. You know she, a mother's heart, she would want to be with her child. But she loved the Lord more than anything else. Here's what I'm driving at with these illustrations that are far beyond the experience that you and I have and I trust we'll ever have. But it's in the extreme picture that they present. It's the idea that sometimes God leads us into suffering. But what is our response to trust Him? to trust Him. Just like Jesus trusted Him, the Son trusted the Father and followed through A record a thousand years before the crucifixion. The Garden of Gethsemane, when he prays as it were with great drops of blood dripping from his head. The intensity. He knew what he was facing. If it were possible for this cup to pass from me, he says. Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done. He yielded to the Father and faced the suffering. Aren't you glad that He did? Because you and I are the redeemed children of God because of what He did in His obedience, the Son to the Father. And so the challenge for you and me, we have the example of Christ, who suffered to redeem us beyond our imagination, but He did that willingly. And in the end, God raised Him from the dead. He ascended up into heaven. He sits on the right hand of the Father. And one day, God's promises will be fulfilled to us. Maybe not on our timetable, but they will be fulfilled. And so here's the challenge. Can you trust Him? Will you trust Him? You can only trust Him. That is our theme for this year. But really, isn't that the theme for the Christian life period? All we can do is trust Him. There are so many things out of our control. And we can get so caught up in the distractions of this world and have our thoughts drawn away from the only solid foundation we have. And what is that foundation? Trust Him. I don't care who the president is. I don't care who's in Congress. I don't care what's happening in the world. Now, I don't mean to say I don't care, but you get my point, right? I'm talking about the reality that sometimes we can get so distracted and the devil wants that to happen and we're like Peter walking on the water. Remember? What happened? Why did Peter begin to sink? Because he began to hear the wind in his ears. Whoa, that wind is fierce. And then he began to see the waves building on either side of him with his vision and he took his eyes off of Jesus and he began to look at his circumstances and he began to sink. But what did Jesus do? He reached out and he got Peter by the hand and Peter rose back up out of that water and then Jesus came and put him back in the boat. Trust Him. Circumstances come and go. Sometimes they're not great, but we can trust Him. And so, I just want to leave that with you this morning. As we come to the Lord's table, what is it that this table is reminding us of? In just a moment, I'm going to read from what the Scripture tells us about the Lord's Table. And what is it that we are told as we read this? Do you remember? What are we showing till the Lord come? Every time we partake of the Lord's Table, what are we showing? His death. We are reminded what is it that His death is doing. It is redeeming us. So as we partake of this table this morning, here's my challenge. Be encouraged that God is in control and He said a thousand years before the crucifixion, here's a picture of what's going to happen. And be encouraged to know that just as Jesus redeemed us and rose from the dead, so the promises of God will be true in our life. We may suffer in this world. but we have glory to follow. And we weren't even going to look at the second half of the psalm this morning, but I challenge you, look at verses 22 and following, and here's what you'll find. Suffering in the first 21 verses, glory in the rest of the chapter. There is glory. You and I will share in that glory. as the redeemed children of God. This is what the Scripture says in the New Testament. Paul writes and says, "...for I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which He was betrayed, took bread. And when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, Take, eat. This is my body which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of me." After the same manner also he took the cup when he had supped, saying, This cup is the New Testament in my blood. This do you as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death till he come." Let's pray together. Father, we thank you For the example we have of our Savior, we thank you for this prophetic psalm a thousand years before the crucifixion of Christ. You gave such a clear picture through David of what Messiah would suffer. Father, we thank you that what we possess is the inspired Word of God, and we can put our confidence in it, not only because that was true, because that was fulfilled, but because of all the other promises that have been made to us in Christ as our Redeemer, as our Savior, that will also come true. One day we will be with you forever, and we're grateful for that. But Father, for now, in this table, we have an opportunity to be reminded of and to demonstrate in an object lesson kind of fashion. that Jesus died for our sins, that He paid the penalty for our sins, that He willingly allowed His blood to be shed and His body to be broken. And He did that not because He didn't have a choice, but because He made the choice to become sin for us. Dear God in heaven, I pray that we this morning would take this seriously. And I pray, Father, that living in the day in which we live, we would not be caught up in what I fear is a thought process in Christendom that downplays sin, but we would recognize Jesus died for us. Help us to personalize that thought and in these moments to express our personal gratitude that Jesus died for me. Lord, I pray that as I do this and as we do this, we would honor You in this table, being reminded of the cost of our salvation and being reminded of the promise that Jesus is coming again. Our Redeemer will come and take us home. And until that day comes, help us to occupy, help us to be busy, help us to honor You. We pray this in Jesus' name and for His sake.