Let's pray for God's blessing on our time in his word. Father in heaven, we thank you for giving us the Bible. We thank you for breathing forth these words of eternal life. We pray that they would not return void, but would accomplish the purpose for which you send them. And we pray that purpose would be to save lost people and to sanctify those that know you. We humbly ask in Jesus's name. Amen. Please turn in your Bibles to Psalm 22, beginning at verse nine. Psalm 22. Verse nine through the end of the chapter, Psalm 22, verse nine, through the end of the chapter. Psalm 22, verse nine, this is God's word. Yet you are he who brought me forth from the womb. You made me trust when upon my mother's breasts. Upon you I was cast from birth. You have been my God from my mother's womb. Be not far from me, for trouble is near. for there is none to help. Many bulls have surrounded me. Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me. They open wide their mouth at me as a ravening and a roaring lion. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It is melted within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue cleaves to my jaws. And you lay me in the dust of death. For dogs have surrounded me, a band of evildoers has encompassed me. They pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones. They look, they stare at me, they divide my garments among them, and from my clothing they cast lots. But you, O Lord, be not far off. O you, my help, hasten to my assistance. Deliver my soul from the sword. my only life from the power of the dog. Save me from the lion's mouth, from the horns of the wild oxen, you answer me. I will tell of your name to my brethren. In the midst of the assembly I will praise you. You who fear the Lord, praise him. All you descendants of Jacob, glorify him, and stand in awe of him, all you descendants of Israel. For he has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, nor has he hidden his face from him, but when he cried to him for help, he heard. From you comes my praise in the great assembly. I shall pay my vows before those who fear him. The afflicted will eat and be satisfied. Those who seek him will praise the Lord. Let your heart live forever. All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will worship before you. For the kingdom is the Lord's, and he rules over the nations. All the prosperous of the earth will eat and worship. All those who go down to the dust will bow before him. Even he who cannot keep his soul alive, posterity will serve him. It will be told of the Lord to the coming generation. they will come and will declare his righteousness to a people who will be born that he has performed it. May God bless the reading of this holy word. As we saw last time, as we started into Psalm 22, it's a window into the heart and mind of Jesus when he was nailed to the cross in his most painful hour, when he was held legally responsible for all the sins of his people, there upon the cross. It was a divine love so great, so unimaginable for his people that he freely and joyfully laid down his life for them and allowed the wrath of God to come upon him. On the cross, Jesus is rendering full, legal, judicial satisfaction to God's curse of our having broken his law. Jesus's merits, his perfect righteousness, when we believe is legally charged, credited, imputed to our legal account. through the instrument of faith alone. And what is faith in Christ? What does it mean to have faith in Jesus? Faith in Jesus is simply renouncing all reliance upon self, all reliance upon works, and resting one's hope of salvation in heaven upon Christ alone, meaning His righteousness and His cross work alone. None of my suffering, none of my works, nothing I do at all. Always remember, this is why the biblical gospel of justification by faith alone is so important. It's so non-negotiable, so essential. God is perfectly holy, God is righteous, God is just, and we are not. How can any of us hope to survive a day of judgment before the all-knowing and all-righteous God when we know that this God will judge us by the standard of perfect righteousness? Our only hope is that Jesus' obedience to the law, His righteousness will be put into our legal account. and that His cross, His satisfaction of divine justice, will also be received by the Father in our stead and in our place. That's our only hope. How can I, a sinner, be right with God? I can't be, by my works, by my righteousness, by my suffering. It is solely, completely, and only by the righteousness and suffering of my Redeemer. This is what we're talking about when the Christian says, Jesus died for my sins. This is what our confidence rendering heaven rests upon when we say that Jesus is our savior. And I want to invite you again this Sunday to simply watch our Lord do his great work. His bitter agony described here was for his people. It's an agony that he doesn't want them ever to experience or know. And if we believe in him and are hidden in him, we will never experience or know it. His suffering was to permanently remove divine justice from his people forever. His being forsaken there at the cross. My God, why have you forsaken me? He said. So that we, having been justified by his blood, would never be forsaken. This is the heart and soul of biblical truth. Once Adam fell into sin, salvation, justification, getting into heaven, to any degree at all by our works, ceased to be possible. The only way a sinful man or woman can enter heaven at the final judgment is for someone else, a divine human person and substitute, to stand in as their legal representative, to do absolutely everything necessary for them, and then simply to give it to them as a free gift. So I ask, what about you? What about you? What do we know from the Bible? Who does God justify? Paul says in Romans 4, the only people God justifies are the wicked. He justifies wicked people. So, what qualifies you to come to Jesus? Are you ungodly and wicked? I am. So many think they gotta clean up first. I gotta prepare myself first. And there's that guy, I know some of you knew him, used to walk up and down the street. Remember that guy that walked up and down the street here every day? I went out there and kept inviting him to church. Come on into church. Oh, I'm way too sinful to be in there. I'm like, well, we're all sinful. We could use another sinner. Come on in. Don't you get it? That's the whole point. We're bad. We're not in here because we're good. People think I've got to clean this up first. I've got too much work I've got to do first before I can come in there and act religious. I've got to fix this. I've got to fix that. But the thing is, if you're sinful and you're ungodly in your own eyes, you're the ones Jesus came for. Romans 4, 5, God justifies the wicked by faith in Christ, by imputing Jesus' personal righteousness and merits to their legal account before God. The Heidelberg Catechism, question 60. How are you righteous before God? Listen to this treasure trove of biblical truth in this answer. How are you righteous before God? Answer, only by a true faith in Jesus Christ, so that though my conscience accuses me that I have grossly transgressed all the commandments of God and kept none of them, and am still inclined to all evil, notwithstanding God without any merit of mine, but only of mere grace, grants and imputes to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ, even so, as if I had never nor ever committed any sin, yea, as if I had fully accomplished all that obedience which Christ has accomplished for me, inasmuch as I embrace such a benefit with a believing heart." Isn't that glorious? Please always remember, forgiveness is for sinful people. Forgiveness is for sinners who know they're sinners. Justification is for guilty people who know they're guilty. Do not attempt to get your act together first. If you wait until you've done that, I promise you, you'll never come to Jesus. Come as a sinner, come as guilty, come as hopeless, come as helpless, and Jesus Christ will bear your sins and justify you. Jesus will give you what the Holy Spirit calls in Romans 5, 17, the gift of righteousness. You know, Charles Spurgeon was a man who really knew what the gospel was, and he also really knew what evangelism was. And in his best-selling book, All of Grace, he used this illustration. Listen to this illustration, quote, A great artist some time ago had painted a part of the corporation of the city in which he lived, and he wanted, for historic purposes, to include in his picture certain characters well-known in the town. A crossing sweeper, unkempt, ragged, filthy, was known to everybody, and there was a suitable place for him in this picture. And the artist said to this ragged, dirty, rugged individual, I will pay you well if you'll come down to my studio and let me paint your likeness. And so the street sweeper came around in the morning, but he was soon sent home by the artist. For he had washed his face, and combed his hair, and donned a respectable suit of clothes. You see, for the picture, he was needed as a beggar, as dirty, and was not invited in any other capacity. Even so, says Spurgeon, the gospel will receive you into his halls if you come as a sinner, not otherwise. Wait not for reformation, but come at once for your salvation. God justifies the ungodly, and that takes you up where you are. It meets you in your worst estate. Come and ask the Lord to justify yet another ungodly one. Why should he not? Come, for this great mercy of God is meant for such as you are. End quote. Isn't that great? He said, I wanted to paint you as a dirty street guy. Don't come in here all cleaned up. Come as you are. Are you not thankful that God justifies ungodly, wicked people? I am. While we're still wicked? Oh yeah. While we're still wicked. How can he do that and still be just and holy? How can he do that and remain holy, holy, holy? Jesus's satisfaction at the cross, accepted in our stead as the punishment for all of our sins, and Jesus Christ's personal righteousness, his merits imputed, his obedience to the Ten Commandments put into our account in God's sight. That's how. That's how he saves us. So let's walk through the passage. Look at verse nine there. Let's watch him do it. Verses 9 and 10. Here you have Jesus speaking there in his heart from the cross. Yet you are he who brought me forth from the womb. You made me trust when upon my mother's breast. Upon you I was cast from birth. You have been my God from my mother's womb. Okay, stop there. Now bear in mind as you consider the work of Jesus, what he came to do, it extends all the way back to the moment of his conception. Now Jesus is qualitatively different from every other human being in the world in that Jesus was not saved at a young age. Jesus was not like John the Baptist, born again while still in the womb. Jesus was never dead in sin. Jesus never needed to be saved. He was righteous from the moment of his conception because he did not have a human father. And as such, he was perfect from the beginning. God was his God from his mother's womb. Okay, look at verse 11. Be not far from me, for trouble is near, for there is none to help. Okay, stop there. Now that's a refrain that's heard a lot in the Psalms. Be not far from me. Be not far from me, O God. Be not far from me, for trouble is near. It's a sad request to God, isn't it? Be not far from me, O God, for trouble is near me. There's a sense in which we as God's children often feel that way. Lord, do not be far from me. but it's much more real for Jesus in this moment. Triune God of three persons really ultimately can never be torn asunder, but this trouble of which the Lord speaks here is a terrible trouble. Jesus has our nature here as fully human, and he's in the covenant of works, and now he's being treated as if he broke it. Now he's being treated as if he had done all of our violations to it. That covenant of works is a strictly legal covenant. There's no grace in it at all. Adam and all of us in Adam broke that covenant when Adam sinned. Jesus, the last Adam, he enters into that broken legal covenant of works. He keeps it for us. He satisfies his penalty for us. That's this trouble of which he speaks here. There's trouble here. There's trouble and there's none to help me. Jesus is praying to his father, be not far from me for trouble is near. That trouble that is now, although Jesus remains perfectly righteous inwardly, he's being legally treated. Always remember that. He's legally taking on the debt here. He's legally taking on the punishment here. And Jesus maintains his devotion to God despite all this suffering. And the father has, from what Jesus says here, forsaken him. And Jesus says in the last phrase of verse 11, you see it? For there is none to help. Now stop there. When adopted, justified children of God pray this, it means one thing. We merely feel forsaken. We never really are. We may even believe somewhat that we are, but we never are. But for Jesus in this moment, there's something mysterious going on here. He really is forsaken. He is being treated as if he had done our sins. Human sin is very real, dear congregation, and his punishment, death and hell are very real. Christ bore in his body our sins upon the cross. And I want to ask you, did he not experience the fullness of divine wrath when he was nailed to that cross? Did he not experience that? He is our shield from that judgment, and we need to bless his name for it. There's something about friendlessness and loneliness that's piercing to anyone's soul, but to believe you have no fellowship, no friends, no one that really loves or cares for you, that's really what he's experiencing here. He says, there is none to help. I'm in trouble, and there's no one. He can't turn to his father now. In these moments, he's legally treated as if he's to be sent to hell, taking that infinite debt load on himself. It's heartbreaking to think of, isn't it? There's none to help. No one's coming to help you. You are truly and utterly really alone, Jesus, in this moment. And look at verse 12 and 13. He says, many bulls have surrounded me. Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me. They open wide their mouth at me as a ravening and a roaring lion. Okay, stop there. Jesus' enemies, they had been wanting to do this. They had been wanting to get their hands on him from day one. As soon as he came out and started preaching, they wanted to kill him. As soon as he healed that man in the temple precincts, on the Sabbath day, they were conspiring to kill him. They wanted to put their hands on him. They wanted to beat him up and murder him. And they heaped verbal abuse and lies upon him constantly throughout his public ministry. But yet, up until this point, no one had ever been able to touch him. No one had ever been able to lay a hand on him. But in Mark 14, 41, Jesus announced when that divine protection from physical harm officially ceased in that moment, when Judas and the soldiers arrived in Gethsemane to arrest Jesus, Jesus announced it. The hour has come. Behold, the son of man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. And now the strong bulls of Bashan are coming in to kill. nailed to the cross in agony, forsaken of God, afflicted, bearing in his soul the horrible stroke of divine justice. Jesus is surrounded by priests, elders, scribes, Pharisees, rulers, and captains, metaphorically described here as strong bowls of bastion have encircled me. You know what Bashan was? Bashan was a very well-watered, extremely prosperous region east of the Jordan River. It was known for its lush pastures, which thoroughly nourished the bulls in that area. And the bulls of Bashan were extraordinarily strong, aggressive, and ferocious. The bulls of Bashan have surrounded me, he's saying. These intimidating, terrible animals. Picture it. Here you have the man described in the Word of God as the Lion of Judah, the King of the Universe. His here cast naked, helpless, unarmed, bloodied, physically distraught, weak, thirsty, friendless, and alone into a pit of hateful, anger-filled bulls. Why? because of this great love for his people to save us from our sins. Jesus must have felt so far from God in these moments. Remember that sad thought, be not far from me for trouble is near and there is none to deliver me, he says, because he's got to do this. If we're going to go to heaven, it's got to be done. Look at verse 14 and 15. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It is melted within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue cleaves to my jaws, and you lay me in the dust of death. Okay, stop there. Jesus's physical condition at this point is nearly indescribable. Having endured a Roman scourging, that loss of blood would have created thirst to an almost unbearable level. He says that his heart was melting like wax. You remember John's testimony when the spear thrust was put into his side on the cross that blood and water flowed. There had been a separation of the two things. We know that Jesus was truly dead at that point. And Jesus here likens himself to dried out, broken pottery. Extreme thirst causes the tongue to swell and cling to the roof of one's mouth, especially if you've been bleeding a lot, which he had been bleeding a lot, and so the thirst would have just been piercing his head and his mouth and his heart. His strength is dried up, he says, like a broken piece of pottery. He knows that physical death is near. The flame of divine vengeance is doing its terrible work on Jesus in this hour. Even the Passover lamb from the Old Testament was roasted in the fire. It's as though the true Passover Jesus, it's like he's being burned up by divine anger as all of our sins, all of our treachery, all of our lust and pride and vengeance and hatred and anger and envy. It's all being laid into his account in this moment and he's condemned for it. That's why every phrase of this Psalm is so important. What is our contribution to this? What are we adding to this? We're just here 3,000 years after the song was written, knowing it happened 2,000 years ago, marveling at it. We don't contribute anything to that. Perish the blasphemous thought that we could. Jesus says, I'm being poured out like water. My bones are out of joints. Realize when they crucified someone, they would pull their arms hard enough to get them into the spike hole so that they would dislocate their shoulders. It's unimaginable. A crucifixion under ancient Rome was unimaginable. And when they nailed you to the cross, they would then stand it up slowly, and then it would drop several feet down into a hole. Imagine the downward force on your wrists, on your feet. That cross was so heavy, Jesus couldn't even carry it. In his weakened condition, Simon of Cyrene had to carry it. That cross plus Jesus's body, his physical body, the spikes in his hands, it was very, very heavy stuff. And when it dropped down into that hole, if his shoulders weren't dislocated then, they would have been afterwards. So I wanna ask, what sort of gratitude do we owe him for this? Why do we still toy around with sin? I wanna encourage you, rejoice if you know Christ. Rejoice that he chooses to love the unlovable, that he chooses to beautify the ugly. He chooses to give eternal happiness to those deserving eternal misery. He gives mercy and compassion to those deserving of neither. He does it all to the praise of the glory of his grace. Dear congregation, the work of Jesus done vicariously here outside of the city of Jerusalem 2,000 years ago, this is what gets us into heaven and nothing else. That's why any version of the gospel that has human works as decisive is wrong. And it's obviously wrong, because there's nothing we can add to this. Coming to God means coming on God's terms. repent and believe. And then we do good works to show our gratitude to the Lord for saving us. Not to keep ourselves saved, not so we might be finally saved, but to show him our gratitude. If grace is the essence of salvation, gratitude is the essence of living a godly Christian life. We want to adorn our profession of faith in Christ. We want to love the people that God has asked us to love. We want to shut the mouths of our adversaries who speak evil of us because we love the Lord and try to do what's right. And yet our lives hopefully shut their mouths so they can't say anything about us. Our good works, they're only the fruit and the evidence, never the cause of our salvation. Our good works are fruit and evidence. They are not the cause of salvation. The oranges that grow on an orange tree do not turn the tree into an orange tree. The orange fruits only make it known what sort of tree it already is. Good works are exactly the same. They serve as proof of our justification, fruit of our justification, evidence that we're saved. Good works continuing in goodness are the fruit, never the cause of our salvation. And anyone who gets such easy questions wrong should never be listened to by anyone. Jesus accomplished redemption by his death and by his suffering. Look at verse 16, he continues his agony. For dogs have surrounded me, a band of evildoers has encompassed me. They pierced my hands and my feet. So the dogs surrounded Jesus. That's the Roman guards and the scribes and the Pharisees and all the people that were shouting out, crucify him, crucify him. They were hunting as in a pack. Have you ever seen wild dogs hunt? They're pack hunters. They surround their prey and then they close in. Dogs have surrounded me, he says. These dogs, this band of evildoers, they had surrounded him. Now they're moving in for the kill. The religious leaders, he's calling them dogs. They had schemed, they had worked very hard to bring Jesus to this moment. And they must not have realized how many prophecies they were fulfilling by doing it. But as always, we know that whatever God has prophesied is gonna happen. What else could this verse refer to if not the spikes that held Jesus's hands and feet to the cross? They pierced my hands and my feet. Isn't that amazing? 800 years before the invention of crucifixion. That phrase, band of evildoers, band of evildoers, that really should be translated, assembly of evildoers, or congregation of evildoers. It's actually the Hebrew word for congregation, for church, Eidah. It's a technical term used throughout the Old Testament to refer to the religious assembly, a church. It's not just a band of evildoers, it's a church of evildoers. A congregation of evildoers have surrounded me. You know, our great Westminster Confession speaks of local churches. They're part of the true church in the world insofar as they're faithful to the gospel. But some churches have so degenerated that they are no longer churches of Christ, but synagogues of Satan. Church of Jesus is supposed to be godly, to be holy. It's not to be a pack of evildoers. And yet here, the church really is a pack of evildoers. They wanted to kill the Son of God. An assembly of evildoers, he called. A band of evildoers have surrounded me. They pierced my hands and my feet. They crucified me. They killed the Prince of Life and asked for a murderer to be given to them instead. And look at verse 17, another terrifying verse. I can count all my bones. They look, they stare at me. Okay, stop there. His dehydrated state, some have said maybe it's because of the wounds, being scourged would have torn so much flesh off his body. You could see his bones and his ribs, but hanging there on the cross, you could look down, one, two, three, four, five, six, you can count his bones and his dehydrated state that would have stood out in bold relief there. And people were staring at him. Doesn't that drive you crazy if you're somewhere and you feel like someone's staring at you on the other side? What about this situation? Everyone's staring at him. It was utter humiliation, utter degradation. Look at verse 18. They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. Isn't that amazing? Prophecy of what the soldiers did, what those Roman soldiers did. John 19 records it, and the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments and made four parts to each soldier apart, and also the tunic. Now the tunic was without seam, woven from the top in one piece. They said, therefore, among themselves, let us not tear it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be. that the scripture might be fulfilled, which says, they divided my garments among them, and for my clothing, they cast lots. Therefore, the soldiers did these things." See, those Roman soldiers, what's their motive? I'd like to get his tunic. Let's not rip it up into four pieces. Let's just throw some dice to see which one gets it. Did they have any idea they were fulfilling a 1,000-year-old prophecy when they did that? Of course not. But that act of stripping Jesus of his clothes and then casting lots for them, it was just another way of humiliating and dehumanizing him. Jesus is forsaken of his father here on the cross, forsaken of his friends, forsaken of his clothes, his dignity, and he's left here completely vulnerable to his enemies with no one to help him. Protection and comfort are gone. Now look at verse 19 and 20. But you, O Lord, be not far off. O you, my help, hasten to my assistance. Deliver my soul from the sword, my only light from the power of the dog. Okay, now, listen. After this verse, the rest of the psalm is just glorious. It's glorious, because it's almost like the payment is done now, and now what's about to happen is coming. But verse 19 and 20 there, it's not vain repetition. Jesus keeps saying the same thing. Be not far from me, O Lord. Be not far from me, O Lord. Be thou not far from me, O Lord, for trouble is near. Help me, deliver me, help me, deliver me. Sometimes when we pray, that's all we can do is just say the same things over and over and over again. We can't wax eloquent anymore. We just say the same things. Now look at verse 21. Save me from the lion's mouth, from the horns of the wild oxen, you answer me. Jesus knows it's almost over. He knows deliverance will be his when that cup of wrath is finally empty. But until it's empty, it's loneliness, torture, pain, and agony, being utterly alone with no help, no mercy, no relief, no deliverance. But now the whole tone of the psalm changes from horrible trial to peace and calm. And it's wonderful to see. Now look at verse 22. You see it? I will tell of your name to my brethren. In the midst of the assembly, I will praise you. Okay, stop there. What is the fruit of all the suffering? Verses 1 to 21 is that his people become his brothers. I will declare your name to my brethren. What a blessing it is to be one of Jesus's brothers or one of Jesus's sisters in the family of God. Jesus is the only son of God by nature, but we are the sons and daughters of God by adoption. Once the penalty is removed, he can adopt us into his family. We are indeed the joint heirs of the new heavens and the new earth if we repent and believe the gospel. That term translated there, assembly. It's the other Hebrew word for church or assembly, that term, kahal. In the midst of the assembly, you see it, verse 22? In the midst of the assembly, I will praise you. That's the term for church. In the midst of the church, I will praise you, he's saying. The church, y'all need to know this, the church didn't start in Acts 2. If you ever hear someone say, well, there is no organized church until Acts chapter 2, You need to know that they need to go back to remedial Sunday school. When does the church start? When God announces the gospel to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. That's when the church starts. The church is on the ark during the flood. The church is Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Israel. The church has been there all along. In the midst of the church, Jesus will praise the Father along with His brethren. We're gonna praise the Father too. Why? Because we're gonna be redeemed. We're gonna be hidden in Him. We're gonna be part of that church, that assembly, that congregation. After Jesus rose from the dead, you know what the first thing was He said? You know what He said to the women? Go tell my brethren that I'm alive. Go tell my brothers. Jesus wanted friends. God wants friends. Abraham was called the friend of God. What are we? When we're redeemed, we're reconciled to God, we become God's friends. We speak to him as our friend, as our king, as our sovereign ruler, yes, but as our friend. We praise God because Christ has reconciled us to him and now we don't have alienation. Now we're friends with each other. Jesus is gonna proclaim the name of his father to my brethren, he says, my brothers. And that shows us the real heart of God was to reach out and to make rebels his own people and to make them the people he loved and adored and would eat fish with on the beach. It's one of the greatest scenes in the whole Bible. John chapter 21, Jesus says, come have breakfast in his resurrected body. And they're still wondering, Wow, look at this. And they share a meal together. Him enjoying fellowship with his brothers. Look at verse 24, or excuse me, verse 23. You who fear the Lord, praise Him. All you descendants of Jacob, glorify Him and stand in awe of Him. All you descendants of Israel. Okay, stop there. Those who know God, fear Him and thus they love and obey Him. That's why it says in verse 23, you who fear God, praise Him. We sing in our pews and we get ourselves up on Sunday mornings and we come here because this is the God that we love and we fear and adore Him. And Jesus is our elder brother in the family of God. He has the power over mankind and each person's destiny. We all acknowledge that together when we pray to Him, when we praise Him, when we listen to His Word. You're the God who created me. You're sovereign over my life. You are the one who holds my days in your hand. When my last day comes, I'm gonna die that day. I'm not gonna die before or after it. You are the sovereign King. So you who fear the Lord, praise Him. All you descendants of Jacob, glorify Him and listen, stand in awe of Him. It says, all you descendants of Israel. Who are the descendants of Israel? We are, through faith in Jesus Christ, Jew or Gentile. We are the children of Abraham. We are the true Israel. Verse 24, For he has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, nor has he hidden his face from him. But when he cried to him for help, he heard. Okay, stop there. That forsaken agony, because Jesus himself is infinite and could truly and finally discharge our infinite debt load of sin, that agony would only be temporary for him on the cross. Jesus would indeed finish that work and he would fully take away the penalty. And once that penalty is gone, it's gone forever. And when the price has been paid, the restoration of perfect communion would happen between Jesus and his father and that perfection of communion between Jesus and the father. Once the debt of all of his people's sin is discharged, Jesus is restored into fellowship and communion with his father. And then all who are in Christ have that same fellowship, have that same communion. with him. God would not hide his face from Jesus forever. When Jesus cried to him for help, once the debt was fully paid, God the Father heard. And because of this, Jesus is able to receive and to save to the uttermost anyone that comes to him, rich, poor, afflicted, well, sick or healthy, happy or sad. And then verse 25, you see it, verse 25, from you comes my praise in the great assembly. You could translate that in the great church, in the great congregation. From you, Jesus talking to his father. Remember at the beginning of the Psalm, he says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? But now that the debt is paid, now it's from you comes my praise in the great assembly among the church. I shall pay my vows before those who fear him. This is exactly what the Apostle Paul wrote about in Philippians chapter 2 verse 7. But he emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant, and being made in the likeness of men, being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross, for this reason. He who formerly cursed Jesus for our sins on the cross, for this reason God highly exalted him. Once he achieves the cross, now the name of Christ is going to be praised by his Father in the congregation. God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name, which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. You see verse 25 there? Look at verse 25. For from you comes my praise in the great assembly. Once he's done this, he's gonna be praised by his Father. No longer forsaken, no longer cursed, but praised. This is my son. He's done it. He did the work I sent him to do. He has saved every single individual that I elected by name and gave to him before the foundation of the world. He has accomplished it. And now I'm going to praise him in the midst of the church. The father loves the son. And the Son loves the Father. And the Spirit loves the Father and the Son. And the Son loves the Spirit. And we take part in that Trinitarian life now. Hidden in Christ, the very same love that the Father has for the Son is on us now as His children. Jesus would, by His Father's will, be crushed for our iniquities, wounded for our transgressions. By His stripes, by His scourging, He would bring about our redemption. But when it was over, Jesus would be exalted to the highest place of worship forever. And you want to see it? Read Revelation 4 and 5, where you have that snapshot of the Lamb on the throne, high, exalted, and lifted up. Now look at... Here's some more of the benefits that we get. Look at verse 26. You see it? The afflicted... Stop right there. Who's the afflicted? That's us! That's us, afflicted by our sin, afflicted with disease, afflicted with heartache and pain and everything else we go through. Verse 26, the afflicted will eat and be satisfied. Those who seek Him will praise the Lord. Let your heart live forever. Think of this spiritually and physically. The spiritually impoverished will be enriched beyond measure as they wear the robe of Christ's righteousness. Those who have for their lifetime as Christians experienced the hunger pains and the thirsting pains of wanting to be more righteous, they will eat and be satisfied. hunger and thirst for righteousness, they will eat and be satisfied. God will satisfy that longing to be righteous. And I want to ask you, if you're a Christian, do you not experience that longing? I am so tired of dealing with the same old sins. What is wrong with me? Why won't it stop? And do you not look forward to finally being in heaven when all that's gone and you can finally just love God the way that you're supposed to at last? The afflicted will eat and be satisfied. That's a promise. Are you not looking forward to going to that supper, that meal? No more hindrance, no more sin, no more ill motives and everything else that ruins our prayers and ruins our interactions. Verse 27. The Great Commission here, listen to it. All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will worship before you. Here you have a repetition of the promise God made to Abram in Genesis 12. After the Tower of Babel, he told Abram, and you, all the families of the earth will be blessed. And here you have Jesus, while he's on the cross still, All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord and all the families of the nations will worship before you. So does it sound like just a handful of people are going to be saved? Just a few? The number of the elect is so vast no one can count them. It's huge. It's huge. All the families of the earth, they will remember and turn to you. You see, mankind is just great at that. He's just great at forgetting who he is and what he is. We live in a nation that's forgotten who it is. that we belong to God. And Jesus is saying here, they're going to remember. All the ends of the earth are gonna remember, and they're gonna come and worship before the Lord. Look at verse 28 and 29. For the kingdom is the Lord's, and he rules over the nations. Verse 29, all the prosperous of the earth will eat and worship. All those who go down to the dust will bow before him, even he who cannot keep his soul alive. We know, Jesus is saying here, everyone's lost without Christ. If they don't have him, they're lost. Even he who cannot keep his soul alive, that's everybody. People from every condition and walk of life will take their place in heaven one day. They will eat and they will worship. The last two verses are prophecies of the Great Commission and the glorious message of Jesus' finished work and what he has done. And I want to tell you also, verse 30 and 31 here, the very last verses of the Psalm, they're also a plea to get the gospel right. Look at verse 30. Posterity will serve him. It will be told of the Lord to the coming generation. Okay, stop there. When your mom, or your dad, or your brother, or your sister, or your friend, or your good news club leader, or your pastor, or your deacon, or your neighbor, or whoever it was that told you about Jesus, and told you about the gospel, gave you that tract, gave you that Bible, prayed specifically for your salvation. Psalm 22 verse 30 came true. It will be told of the Lord to the coming generation. You hear that? Why did you and I hear the gospel? Because Jesus said we would. He said we would. Look at verse 31. They will come and will declare his righteousness to a people who will be born that he has performed it. That's a plea to get the gospel right. When we preach the gospel to people, when we recount what the Lord has done to the next generation, he has done it, not us. He does it, not you. The Great Commission will succeed and will be accomplished. Evangelists will declare that Christ has performed it. He has done it. Every Christian in this room heard the declaration of the gospel of a full and perfect righteousness and salvation performed by Christ at some point in our life. We were yet to be born when David wrote this here. And notice that last phrase that he has performed it. And it really says that he has done it. What does that remind you of his last words from the cross? It is finished. It is finished. I want to close with one of my favorite Spurgeon quotes of all time. I remember hearing this for the first time and it brought me to tears. It was so great. Listen to Spurgeon. Listen to how a true evangelist did evangelism. Listen to this quote. Children of God, ye who by faith receive Christ as your all in all, tell it every day of your lives that it is finished. Go and tell it to those who are torturing themselves, thinking through obedience and mortification to offer satisfaction. Yonder Hindu is about to throw himself down upon the spikes. Stop, poor man. Wherefore wouldst thou bleed? For it is finished. Yonder person is torturing himself with fastings and self-denial. Cease, cease, poor wretch, from all these pains, for it is finished. In all parts of the earth, there are those who think that the misery of the body and the soul may be an atonement for sin. Rush to them, stay them in their madness and say to them, wherefore do ye this? It is finished. All the pain that God asks, Christ has suffered. All the satisfaction by way of agony in the flesh that the law demands, Christ hath already endured. It is finished. And when ye have done this, go ye next to the benighted votaries of Rome. When ye see the priests with their backs to the people, offering every day the pretended sacrifice of the mass, and lifting up the host on high, a sacrifice, they say, an unbloody sacrifice for the quick and the dead, cry out, cease, false priests, cease, for it is finished. Cease, false worshipper, cease to bow, for it is finished. God neither asks nor accepts any other sacrifice than that which Christ offered once for all upon the cross. Go ye next to the foolish among your own countrymen, who call themselves Protestants, but who are Papists after all. who think by their gifts and their gold, by their prayers and their vows, by their church goings and their chapel goings, by their baptisms and their confirmations to make themselves fit for God and say to them, stop, it is finished. God needs not this of you. He has received enough. Why will you pin your rags to the fine linen of Christ's righteousness? Cease from your pains, your doings, your performances. It is finished. Christ has done it all. Why try to improve on what is finished? Why add to that which is complete? The Bible is finished. He that adds to it shall have his name taken out of the book of life and out of the holy city. Christ's atonement is finished. And he that adds to it must expect the selfsame doom. Go to the poor, despairing wretch who has given himself up for damnation. He who says, I cannot escape from sin, and I cannot be saved from his punishment, and say to him, sinner, the way of salvation is finished once for all, end quote. Psalm 22, verse 30 and 31. Look at those last verses again. A posterity shall serve him. This is the heart of Jesus on the cross. He's thinking, he's praying, a posterity will serve him. It will be recounted of the Lord to the next generation. They will come and declare his righteousness to a people who will be born that he has done this. You're seeing it fulfilled right here, right now. Make sure when you recount it to the next generation, to your children, to your grandchildren, to your friends, make sure that when you declare that, that you recount it and declare it as something that is finished, that He has done. Make sure you declare it as a complete work and that God neither asks nor accepts any other sacrifice for salvation except that which was done by Jesus at the cross where he cried out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Let's pray. Father in heaven, we bless you for the finished work of Christ. What a blessing it is to know that the debt is paid, that righteousness has been achieved, and that all who rest upon him can know certainly, infallibly, that they are forgiven, that they have the gift of eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord, in whose name we pray, amen.