Now, shall we open our Bibles to the twenty-second Psalm, Psalm twenty-two. We have been following some studies in the Psalms, when I've been speaking here on Sunday nights lately, in the, we've been thinking about and talking about what we call the Messianic Psalms, the Messianic Psalms. There are certain Psalms which are grouped together as and called Messianic Psalms. That's to say they speak about the Messiah. Now, many Psalms speak about the Lord Jesus. For instance, Psalm one. Psalm one is not considered to be a Messianic Psalm. Psalm two is the first of the Messianic Psalms, but Psalm one says, Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly and so on. Who is that? Who could it be? It's not you, nor me. It's the Son of God. Thank God for all godly men that can be called blessed men, righteous men, but the only really righteous one was the Son of God. But there are certain Psalms, termed Messianic Psalms, and these are the ones that are quoted in the New Testament as being applied to the Lord Jesus Christ. For instance, Psalm II, the first of the Messianic Psalms, It's quoted several times in the New Testament, but Peter uses it when he says, Why do the heathen raise the people imagine a vain thing and so on? And they gather together against thy holy child Jesus. He quotes it that way. And then Psalm eight. Psalm eight is quoted in Hebrews two. He was made for a while a little lower than the angels, you remember. Then Psalm sixteen, we spoke on last time, I was speaking on the Messianic Psalms. Psalm sixteen, we quoted it this morning several times. It's mentioned in the second chapter, the Acts of the Apostles. These are quoted, these very words quoted, as applying to the Son of God when He was here on earth. Now, the one tonight, above all others, applied to the Son of God. Let's read it, and you recall in your mind how these words are recorded in the New Testament. Verse one, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? Oh, my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not. And in the night season, and I am not silent, but thou art holy. O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. Our fathers trusted in thee. They trusted, and thou didst deliver them. They cried unto thee, and were delivered. They trusted in thee, and were not confounded. 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 the head, saying, He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him. Let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him. But thou art he that took me out of the womb. Thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breast. I was cast upon thee from the womb. Thou art my God from my mother's belly. Be not far from me, for trouble is near, for there is none to help. Many bulls have compassed me. Strong bulls have beset me round. They gaped upon me with their mouths as a ravening and a roaring lion, and poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It is 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. Be not thou far from me, O Lord, O my strength, haste thee to help me. Deliver my soul from the sword, my darling, from the power of the dog. Save me from the lion's mouth. for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns. Verse twenty-two, this is where the Psalm changes. Peter said that the prophets wrote about the sufferings of Christ and the glory it should follow. And in every one of these Old Testament prophecies about the Lord, you can trace down, down, down the sufferings of Christ, but you meet a bottom. Then you begin to go up the glory that should follow. And this is where it changes. Verse twenty-two, I will declare thy name. He says in twenty-one, thou hast heard me. Thou hast heard me. I will declare thy name unto my brethren. In the midst of the congregation will I praise thee. Ye that fear the Lord, praise him. All ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him. And fear him, all ye the seed of Israel. For he hath not despised nor abhor the affliction of the afflicted. Neither hath he hid his face from him, but when he cried unto him he heard. My praise shall be of thee in the midst of the great congregation. I will pay my boughs before them that fear him. The meek shall eat and be satisfied. They shall praise the Lord that seek him. Your heart shall live forever. all the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord, and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before him. For the kingdom is the Lord, and he is the governor among the nations. All they that be fat upon the earth shall eat and worship. All they that go down to the dust shall bow before him, and none can keep alive his own soul. A seed shall serve him. It shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation. They shall come. and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born that he hath done this and i understand that in the hebrew those last words he hath done this are the exact equivalent of the words used by the lord on the cross when he said it is finished it is finished let's turn over to matthew twenty seven a moment Matthew chapter twenty seven and see these things fulfilled in the New Testament. Matthew twenty seven and verse thirty three. And when they were coming to a place called Golgotha, that is to say a place of a skull, they gave him vinegar to drink mingled with Gol. When he had tasted there he would not drink, and they crucified him. and parted his garments, casting lots, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophet. They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots. The very words we read in Psalm twenty two. And sitting down, they watched him there, and set over his head his accusation, written, This is Jesus, the King of the Jews. Then were two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand, and the other on the left. and they that passed by reviled him wagging their heads. The exact words we read in Psalm twenty two. And saying, Thou that destroys the temple and buildest it in three days, save thyself, if thou be son of God, come down from the cross. Also the chief priests mocking him, with the scribes and the 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. Psalm twenty-two quoted again. If he will have him, for he said, I am the Son of God. The thieves also which were crucified with him cast the same in his teeth. While from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, Lama, Sabak, tonight, that is to say, Psalm twenty-two, my God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said, This man called it for Elias, and straightway one of them ran and took a sponge and filled it with vinegar and put it on a reed and gave it him to drink. The rest said, Let thee, let us see whether Elias would come to save him. Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the goose. God bless the reading of this tremendous portion, the very center portion of all the scripture. Shall we pray? Blessed God, our Father, we bow before thee. Our hearts are subdued and our hearts are melted as we read these wonderful words above thy beloved Son. What can we say, Lord? How can we describe? How can we talk about... These words, they are so pregnant, so full of the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ. We feel we cannot add to them, but we pray that as tonight we read them over and think about them, that the Holy Spirit of God will take these wondrous words and apply them so that we might understand better and more fully what our salvation cost and what our blessed Lord paid for us when he took our place and died on the middle cross at Chaldean. Speak to our hearts, we pray thee, and we ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. I remember many years ago I was sitting at the Lord's table. I think, yes, in the city of Bristol, England, And there was a brother there whom we loved, Vera and I loved very much. In fact, he married us. And Anambri got up one Sunday morning and he said this. He said in the Pentateuch, in the first books of the Bible, we get the types of the sufferings of Christ. In the prophets, we get the prophecies concerning the sufferings of Christ. In the Gospels we get the facts and the story of the sufferings of Christ. In the Acts of the Apostles we get the fruit of the sufferings of Christ. In the Epistles we get the doctrines of the sufferings of Christ. And in the Revelation we get the eternal results of the sufferings of Christ. But in the Psalms Listen, in the Psalms we get the feelings of Christ as he suffered. I remember him so clearly. Must be I've been married nearly fifty years. It was before then, so it's a long time ago. But I remember him saying those words that morning. In the Psalms we get the feelings of Christ as he suffered. This is what we're going to talk about tonight. And when the Holy Spirit wrote this Psalm by the hand of David, a thousand years before Christ, crucifixion had not been invented. This cruel, the most cruel and painful, and excruciatingly painful method of execution had not been invented. How God's people have suffered at the cruel hand of men, some have been, hundreds have been burned to death, many have been boiled to death in boiling oil, some have been torn to death, some have been thrown to the lions, how they've suffered. But you cannot think of any means of dying worse than the death of crucifixion. How man could ever invent such an awful means of execution, I cannot conceive. It's bad enough to have to put a man to death. but to torture him to death. In agony is untold. I can't understand it. And crucifixion was invented by the Romans, the Roman Empire. And I'll tell you something. That was God's plan for the death of his son. And after his son died, of course many were crucified after, I understand it. at the siege of Jerusalem in AD seventy. Well, it fell in AD seventy. The siege took many months, of course. But I understand there were sometimes hundreds of crucifixes on the hills around Jerusalem. Thousands have been put to death that way, in that cruel way. But here, in Psalm thirty-two, a thousand years before the Lord Jesus died, we get the very detail. of death by crucifixion. Before it was invented, here's the inspiration of Scripture. Here's the proof that all Scriptures give by inspiration of God. And God, David as a prophet, was able to tell word by word what was going to happen to the Messiah when he came here. And he starts this Psalm right in the deepest, darkest hour of Golgotha. Right in the deepest, darkest hour of the sufferings of the Son of God. Right in the center, as we sometimes sing, O Cross of Christ, we sing, it's the center of two eternities, which look with rapt adoring eyes, backward and on to thee, and right in the center of all eternity, in the depths of the awful suffering of Christ. Out of the lowest depths of all, he cried, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And this is where David starts. My God, my God. He transports us, as it were, right into the depths of the suffering of the Son of God. He gives us some of the details after. But the lowest depths of all, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? All through his life, the Lord Jesus had been... He had friends. He had many enemies, but he had friends. He had loved ones. Those who cared for him. I suppose that seamless robe that he was torn off of him and for which they cast lots, I suppose it was made by some loved ones, some sister that knitted it together or somehow put it together for him. There were those that loved him and cared for him. But in Psalm eighty eight in the last verse it says this, Lover and friend as thou put far from me and my acquaintance into darkness. There are three stages to love. You meet a friend and you say, Oh, so is it, well, that's an acquaintance of mine. Then you get to know that person better and you say, that's a friend of mine. And maybe he goes beyond that, becomes a lover. There's three stages of friendship. Aquaintance, friend and lover. Psalm eight eight and the last verse, verse eighteen says, Lover and friend, as thou put far from me and my acquaintance into darkness, and alone he bear the cross, alone its grief sustained, his was a shame and loss, and he the victory gained, and out of the utter death of the agony of the cross, he cried, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? If Philippians chapter two tells us, gives us those seven steps down from the glory, down, down, down to death, even the death of the cross. You couldn't go lower than that. Death is low enough, but lower than that, the death of the cross. The ignominious, shameful, awful, painful death of the cross. That's where he went, and it's out of those depths we get these first words. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? How about more than that? We shall read it. In a moment or two, we look at some of the details here concerning crucifixion. The Lord Jesus hung for six hours on the cross. For three hours he suffered the mocking. They laughed at him and they deared at him and they scoffed at him. And he endured the excruciating agony of the weight of his body hanging on those wounds in his hands. He endured the excruciating agony of the scourged and bleeding back against that rugged cross. And a crown of thorns with thorns, not the kind of thorns you get on a rosebush, but they showed me a crown of thorns when I was in Jerusalem. The thorns were two inches long. And they showed me a crown platted of those thorns. And that's what they had on his brow. And they beat him on the head when he had the thorns on his head. in all that suffering. He endured all that. Ah, but yes, suddenly at midday the whole scene was covered in darkness. He says here, oh my God, I cry in the daytime when the light was shining and the sun was shining. I cry in the daytime, thou hereest not. And in the night season, what was the night season, our God covered the scene in darkness. And he made the daytime nighttime. he hid away from human gaze the suffering of his son they'd seen him suffering there all that man could do against him but now something greater far far greater was about to take place God shut him in we sometimes talk about that loaf of bread we use Sunday morning when we remember the Lord and we say you can see the mark of the oven that it's gone through the furnace and the and the and the the scorching of the flame of the furnace is shown on the bread and the Lord Jesus went into the furnace. When I was a boy, I had an uncle and he was a baker. And my father used to take me sometimes to see his brother, not very often because my father was a saved man and his brother was not. We didn't go very often, but sometimes we went. And I was very fascinated to go out into the bakery. and they had huge ovens but there was only a small door into the oven and inside the door it opened out into great big space and they had a long almost like a flat wooden spade thing that they put the bread in place inside there I can see it now years ago and with this pill they called the pill They put the bread in place, placed it all out there. The dough, all the bread made up. And then they shut the oven door and they turned on the heat. And the heat came scorching up around the edges of this flat paved place. It was brick, I think, and came up over. And the bread was baked that way. And later they'd fetch it out. I used to watch that when I was a boy. And the Lord Jesus, when he hung up on the cross, In those second three hours, God closed the oven door. You can't see what happens inside an oven. You can't see. You can see the results after when the bread comes out and is scorched and seared by the flames. That's what we eat Sunday mornings at the Lord's table to remind us of his suffering. But the Lord Jesus in that lonely hour, he went into this furnace. And God, Lord, the blinds of heaven, and shut his son out. All through his lifetime, God took delight in his son. And I'm sure that when he hung upon the cross, he took more delight in him at that moment than he ever did before. But because of the justice of God, he had to turn his face from him. He said, I am not alone. He kept saying, I am not alone. The Father and I are one. But now he was alone. And in that lonely, lonely three hours upon the cross, with the curtains of heaven down, in the darkness, he says, in the night season, oh my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not. And in the night season, and I'm not silent. Those three hours must have seemed like three millenniums. Has he endured what? Oh, not the pain of the nails that was awful. Not the scourge back that was awful. But what he endured in those second three hours was the wrath of God. Thank God you and I will never, never know what that means. Because the wrath of God fell upon him and it will never, never fall upon us. But if there should be one here tonight out of Christ, I don't think there is. And you pass into eternity, O Christ, you'll endure the wrath of God for all eternity. He that believeth on the Son has everlasting life. He that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. John three thirty six. And the Lord Jesus endured the wrath of God. You think of the sin that's in the world today. You think of the millions of people, the sin that's going on at this very, very moment, the darkness in men's hearts. Think of the nightclubs, think of the murder that's going on just now, and all the major crimes, all the sin that's in the world today. Today, what is it? The twenty-ninth day of August, nineteen seventy-six. So think of all the days, three hundred and sixty-five days in a year. think of all the years and all the ages and think of all the sin of all the ages and think of the divine and just retribution against sin the wrath of God the punishment of that sin and concentrate that sin into three short that concentrate that punishment into three short hours he bore the sin of the world that never, never know. Not to the last, I can't talk about moments in eternity, but not to throughout eternity, it'll never end, but not to the throughout eternity, will we ever fathom or ever know what it costs the Son of God in that awful furniture which he passed at a place called Calvary. And David's writing about it. and he tries to express it as David, as a prophet, looked on to that awful hour. And he says, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me and from the words of my roaring? The Lord supplies his own answer. Why God forsook him? Why God was so far from him? Verse four gives us the answer. No, verse three. But thou art holy. Thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. God was a holy God, and in those three hours the Son of God was made sin. Fathom it, I can't. Understand it, I can't. But read it, I can. First Corinthians, second Corinthians five, verse twenty-one, he who knew no sin was made sin for us. And the Bible clearly says God cannot look upon sin. God cannot look upon. Why did he hide his face? Because God cannot look upon sin. And the Lord Jesus became what you and I are. He was made sin. He took our place. He became our substitute. And he bore our sins in his own body on the tree. And here's the meaning of Psalm twenty-two. Thou art holy, O thou that inhabits the praises of Israel, God cannot look upon sin. And there, that's where the Psalm opens, in the lowest depth and agony. Not shall I say of Calvary, but the lowest depth and agony of the great atonement He made and the great demands of the throne of God. The throne of God is holy. The throne of God is righteous. I used to have a great friend in Greece, and he used to say, if a sinner could ever get to heaven in a sin, the throne of God would cry out. You can't come in. You can't come in. Because the throne of God is holy, and sin can never enter there. And thou art holy. O thou that inhabits the praises of Israel, our fathers trusted in thee. He's the Son of God in those agonies, looking back over the years. Our fathers trusted in thee. They trusted in thee, and thou didst deliver them. They cried unto thee, and were delivered. They trusted in thee, and they were not confounded. But I... I've been crying all through these six hours, he says, in the daylight and in the darkness. But I am a worm and no man. How could the Son of God go, Lord? I am a worm and no man. They tell me that the real meaning in the Hebrew here, as I read several books on it, several commentators, they say it was a little worm, a cocus worm, and they have them in Mexico today, and from these little worms, they have a very scarlet red blood, more, a brighter scarlet than anything else in the world. And they take these little tiny insects, and they crush them up, and they take this scarlet blood, and it becomes a dye. a red dye. And you remember in the furniture of the temple of the tabernacle, there was blue and scarlet and purple. And that was the scarlet, the peculiar bright scarlet. And I understand that some of the vestments and robes that are made in Mexico today are made from this very thing today, from this blood of this little cocus insect. And that was what the real meaning of the worm, I am a worm and no man, just crushed. But when that insect was crushed, the most precious blood came of a dye that can't be found anywhere else. And out of that blood they made garments of glory and beauty and wonderful clothes. And out of that precious blood that the Lord Jesus said at Calvary, You and I are going to be robed in robes of glory for all eternity. Great, wondrous, What should I say? Ornaments of glory he put upon us, which came out of that terrible death of suffering to which he went to the place called Calvary. I'm a worm and no man, a reproach of men and despise of the people. Oh, they see me, laugh me, discord. I read that in, I read it purposely in Matthew twenty-seven, they passed by, they said, they shut out the lip, they pushed out the lip and they scorned him and said, if you be the Son of God come down from the cross. They shake the head, saying he trusted on the Lord, let him deliver him. That he would deliver him. Let him deliver him, saying he did light it in him. I read that in Matthew twenty-seven. But thou art took me, thou art he that took me from my mother's womb. Now he goes back over his life. How he trusted in God from childhood. From babyhood. I was cast upon thee from the womb. Thou art, my God. I should never forget our brother. I should never forget our brother. Milligan one morning telling us from Isaiah fifty-three, where it says that he should grow up before him as a tender plant. And I don't want to take his little talk, but it was so precious, and I've never forgotten it. He says in some of the seed catalogs and books that he reads, The name is mentioned and there's a great letter H after it. It means it's a hardy plant. It'll grow in any kind of old rough soil. It's a hardy plant. But some have H. H. They're only half hardy. You've got to be careful about those. But some have a tea. That's a tender plant. Was brought up in a hot house. Brought up with daily care. And the Lord Jesus. should grow up as a tender plant. He came from the hot house of heaven, from the glory and all the care he had there and was plunged into a cold, dark, hidden world. In sorrow that was not for him, how can a tender plant grow in the rough soil of this world? He should grow up before him as a tender plant. I shall have fifty-three. He said, he said, I was cast upon thee from the womb, dark, my God, from my mother's belly. be not far from me for trouble is near there is none to help this is these are the words the feelings of christ as he suffered the words of christ as he hung upon the cross the thoughts of christ as he hung upon the cross many bulls have compassed me strong bulls of bation have beset me around think of all those roman soldiers think of all those Jewish leaders encompassing him around strong bulls of Bation have set me around they gaped upon me with their mouths as a ravening and roaring lion I am poured out like water you think of the physical the intense pain how it would cause an awful perspiration he says I am poured out by water all my bones are out of joint you see like hanging out long enough it would pull the socket joint the sockets out of the the armpits hanging all my bones are out of joint what intense awful suffering all my bones are out of joint my heart is like wax it's melted in the midst of my bowels his heart This is what he says. My heart was just like wax melted within me. My strength is dried up like a pot shirt. He was bleeding intensely for hours and as the blood left him, his strength left him. My strength is dried up like a pot shirt and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws. Do you remember he said, I thirst? That was the last thing he said. before he said it is finished he said I thirst because all scriptures written of him were fulfilled but there was one thing not fulfilled in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink and that hadn't been fulfilled and in that awful thirst he said I thirst and then they gave him the vinegar then he said it is finished all the scripture was fulfilled fulfilled about him and thou hast brought me into the dust of death. Dogs have compassed me. You remember the Jews called the Gentiles dogs. They called them, in the Lord's time, the Gentiles, they called them dogs. Gentile dogs. He said the dogs compassed me. But he said the assembly of the wicked, surely that must have been the leaders of the Jewish people. 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 at me. Could there ever be a better or more a fuller description of crucifixion, written a thousand years before it took place? Truly it's a messianic sound. Written beforehand about the sufferings of Christ. They part my garments among them. We read of that. They part my garments among them. The soldiers, we didn't go down far enough to read that tonight, but as in they The twenty-seventh chapter there of Matthew, how they cast lots for his garments and parted his garments among them. They part my garments among them and cast lots upon my vesture. And so written here a thousand years before, in detail and in accuracy, were the awful sufferings of Christ. You tell me the Bible is not inspired. You tell me the Bible wasn't written by God. Cannot be. You couldn't get detail like this to be written a thousand years before and take place as it did at the place called Calvary. Thank God we've got God's word in our hand tonight. The unfallable, unchangeable, living word of God. Be not thou far from, your Lord. Terrible thing to think about the Son of God, talking about his Father being far from him. They were always so near. I and the Father are one. Be not thou far from me, O Lord, O my strength, make haste to help me. Deliver my soul from the sword, my darling, from the power of the dog. Save me from the lie. Ah, here's the lie. That's Satan himself. That's Satan himself. He said, now I got him where I want him. Now I can wipe him out forever. saved me from the lion's mouth. And thou hast heard me. Oh, thank God for the middle of verse twenty-one. Thou hast heard me. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me? And he says, Thou hast heard me. It was all completed. He bore to the last draggs the cup. He drank to the last draggs the cup of the wrath of God. He bore to the last drop the punishment that should have been yours and mine when he hung upon the cross at Calvary. At last it's finished. And in a loud voice he said, It is finished. He bowed his head and gave up the ghost. Thou has heard me. And here the story changes. He said to those going to a mess, as we said this morning, O fools and slow hearts, to believe all that the prophets have written, ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory. And he is the bottom of the sufferings. And we start to come to the glory side. And now we come to the glory side. He says, I will declare thy name to my brethren. That's the first thing he did. If you read the twentyth chapter of John, he appeared to marry that morning and he said, go and tell my brethren. First time he was able to call them brethren. Go and tell my brethren, I ascend to my Father. He didn't say your Father first. He put my Father to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. You go and tell my brethren, I will declare my name, thy name unto my brethren. This is written a thousand years before, and it took place to the very detail on the resurrection morning. In the midst of the congregation, will I praise thee. He that fear the Lord praise him. All the seed of Jacob glorified him and fear him all the seed of Israel. I remember years ago, and I think I have said this before, but some of you wouldn't have heard it. I remember years ago, I used to be in the same meeting as Mr. Walter Scott, the brother who wrote that wonderful book, we have them in the bookstore, the Exposition of the Revelation. And when he was preaching in London at some time, some friends took him to the Royal Albert Hall to hear Handel's Messiah. He'd never heard it before. And I've been there and heard it. And he's a thrilling experience to go to Royal Albert Hall that was built as a monument to Prince Albert, the husband of the old Queen Victoria, you know. And it's there in that Albert Hall that the famous story is told that when they come to the hallelujah chorus and everybody rises, of course, Queen, she wouldn't rise, but she did rise. And that goes down to history, that Queen Victoria stood up to pay homage to the King of Kings when they sang the hallelujah chorus in the Albert Hall. And it said that, and Walter Scott went there, and he was so inspired. then he came home and he wrote a track and oh I wish I had it I used to have so many but I gave them they've lost them all he wrote a track he called it the mighty oratorium the hallelujah chorus in heaven and he described from Psalm twenty two what he saw in the Royal Albert Hall all the orchestra and all the singers taking their part and the leader leading them all and then then there comes a time as you know in Handel's Messiah, when there's perfect silence. And then the soloist steps forth. And when one beautiful voice, the soloist sings. And he says, here is the Son of God, the soloist in heaven. All the choirs of heaven, he's leading the choirs, but for a moment they cease. And the Son of God steps forth. And he says, I will declare thy name in the midst of the great congregation, the Son of God, to sing a solo in heaven, and you and I to be there and listen to it. Can you think of anything greater? Can you think of anything higher? Can you think of anything that would lead us closer to himself and lead us on, wait for that moment when we see his face? I will declare thy name. My praise shall be of thee. in the midst of the great congregation. I will pay my vows before them that fear him. And he is the Son of God, raised from the dead, ascended as we saw him this morning, on the right hand of the Majesty on high. And we're looking into the future. And he's amid the choirs of heaven. And he sings a solo. And he declares God's name in the midst of the great congregation. Several congregations mentioned here. He speaks about, I declare my name unto my brethren, in the midst of the congregation, where I sing praise unto thee. Ye that feel the Lord praise him. And then he says, my praise shall be in the midst of the great congregation. I think that's future. I think that's amidst the glories of heaven. Revelation four and five. Revelation five, where they sing to the Lamb upon the throne. And ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands. The great congregation. singing praises to the one who hung upon the middle cross at Calgary. What a wonderful town, eh? The meek shall eat and be satisfied. They shall praise the Lord that's seeking. Your heart shall live forever. Do you believe this? The meek shall eat and be satisfied. We sat at the Lord's table this morning. Nobody came here in pride. Nobody came here thinking himself to be a great one. We all came here humble. We all came here as those who have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ and our sins forgiven. And in lowly adoration, the meat, we sat into his presence and we ate at his table and were satisfied this morning. They shall praise the Lord that seek him. Your heart shall live forever. You and I could have been in a lost eternity forever, but He says we shall live forever because of what He did at the place called Calvary. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn unto the Lord, and all the kindreds of nations shall worship before thee. I believe in a sense that's happened today. I believe that early in the early hours this morning, way, way out in the East, people gathered as we did at the Lord's table to remember Him. And as the day moved on and the sun moved on and the hours moved on and the clock moved on, then other groups met. These dispersed and other groups met. Twenty-four long hours. Day under day, uttering praise. Twenty-four long hours of praise. All the ends of the earth shall remember. Remember Him. That's what we did this morning. And turn unto the Lord and all the kindreds of the nations. shall worship Him. That's what we've been doing, and His people have been doing in this world today. But there's a future aspect here. All the kindreds of the nations shall worship before Him. The day is coming when every tongue is going to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father, and all the nations are going to bring their treasures to Jerusalem. How clearly it's put in Revelation. The doors of the city shall never be shut, and the nations shall bring their treasures there, and bring their worship to Jerusalem. and lay them at the feet of the one who hung upon the middle cross of Calvary. For the kingdom is the Lord's, and he is the governor among the nations. Not yet. Not yet. It will be. The kingdom is the Lord. See, this Psalm, whilst it looks forward a thousand years to Calvary, it looks forward another two thousand or more years to the millennial kingdom. The kingdom is the Lord's. He is the governor among the nations. All that may fat upon the earth shall eat and worship. All that they that go down to the dust shall bow before him, and none can keep alive his soul. In a coming day, all are going to bow the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ, and he's going to reign supreme. A seed shall serve him. He shall be counted to the Lord for a generation. What does it mean a seed shall serve? What could it mean? You plant a seed in the ground, and it multiplies, and it drops its own seeds, and it multiplies. And we preach the gospel, and the seed is sown, and it grows up. The Lord talked about the little seed becoming a great mustard tree. It should be come to the Lord for a generation, and they shall come and declare His righteousness unto the people they shall be born. Let's turn over to that wonderful scene in Revelation a moment. It says in Revelation chapter twenty-one, verse twenty-four, and the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it, and the kings of the earth to bring their honor and their glory and honor into it. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day, for there should be no night there. And they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it. And they shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth neither whatsoever worketh abomination or makeeth a lie, but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life. And the Lord Jesus is going to see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied. What a glorious day that would be. Look at the last verse. They shall come and declare his righteousness unto all people that should be born. that he has done this. And I told you some translate that it is finished. It is finished. That the work of Calvary, people that should be born, that's where you and I come in, will declare that the work of Calvary was a finished work, that the Lord Jesus met all the claims of the throne of God. And he satisfied, ah, more than that, he glorified God. when he died upon the cross and it is finished. As a result, you and I have eternal salvation. Thank God for the cross of Christ and thank God for this wonderful sound describing those sufferings. Shall we pray? Our blessed Lord, we bow before that we cannot say much, Lord, our words would fail as we contemplate the wonder of this sound written so long ago. But we thank you for the accurate the accuracy, for the detail, for the wonderful, infallible, inspired word of God. We thank thee for giving thy son. We thank thee he went willingly to the place called Calvary. But, O Lord, we think of those dread dark hours when he cried, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And so we once again stood at the foot of the cross tonight. And we've gazed whilst we could gaze at the sufferings of Christ. And then before our vision, thou shalt cover the scene in darkness, and we can't gaze any longer, but we can hear a cry there. Why hast thou forsaken me? We can only surmise we'll never know for all eternity what it cost. But we thank thee, Lord, that in that red dark hour, thy throne was satisfied. and we thank thee because of that work thou hast accepted us and how gladly we'll join with those who come and bring their homage and lay at his feet both now in this time when he's rejected how gladly we come to remember him on the Lord's day morning until he come and how gladly in a future day we'll join the hosts of heaven and sing to him that sits upon a throne to him be majesty and glory and honor and dominion and power for ever and ever, except our worship and praise for all that thy Son accomplished in that dark hour on Calvary. We ask it in His precious and worthy name. Amen. so