All right, if you look at verse number one there,
Psalm 22, verse number one,
it starts off by saying very famous words,
my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?
If you're reading this Psalm
as someone that knows of course of Jesus Christ
and you know of the crucifixion,
you know immediately just by looking at the Psalm,
this is a reference to Jesus Christ, okay?
And he's suffering on the cross.
The title for the sermon this morning
is Jesus Forsaken of the Father,
Jesus Forsaken of the Father.
And before I get into the sermon,
I do just wanna quickly thank Brother Matthew Kernow,
just for his hard work over the last few weeks
with not just a live stream,
but the monitors, we've got that mic set up,
we've got now a television there in the mother's room.
So any mothers that are taking their little kids,
you can actually still watch me live, praise God, okay?
So if you wanna check that out,
and actually Brother Caleb was the one
that actually got that monitor up on the wall there.
So I don't know if anyone else has been helping out,
but everybody that's been just serving this church
and making sure that we get the live stream
going out to the wider audience.
I was going through the names just this week
as the people who faithfully give to our church
or just faithfully listening to our church.
You know, we've kind of got like a church
outside of the church, you know,
with people that are listening.
So I'm really thankful for the online listeners as well,
though the priority of course is the local church
and the congregation,
and we'll soon see how important it is
to be part of a congregation physically.
But if you look at verse number one,
well actually maybe some of your Bibles say there
to the chief musician upon Ijelaf's shaha,
I'm not sure what that means,
but then it says a psalm of David.
And so even though this is about Jesus Christ,
we can't also forget that David is going through anguish.
Okay, David feels like at this point in time
that God has forsaken him, okay?
But of course we know the truth
that God would not forsake his people,
but the sad reality is that God the Father
did forsake the son at a point in time, okay?
When Jesus Christ said these words,
I mean that completely destroys modalism, okay?
Where the father forsakes the son,
but Jesus is the father, but what did he forsake?
Oh, he forsook Jesus the man, the body, not Jesus God.
Well, who died on the cross for me if he's not for God?
Was it just the man?
That doesn't make sense.
So anyway, that's not something that's not about modalism,
but the stupidity of saying that Jesus is the father,
well how did the father then forsake Jesus Christ?
Let's look at verse number one again.
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Why art thou so far from helping me
and from the words of my roaring, okay?
And so of course these are the words
that Jesus Christ said when he was on the cross,
you don't need to turn there, Matthew 27, 45,
it says for now, sorry, now from the sixth hour
there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour
and about the ninth hour Jesus cried out
with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli,
lama sabachthani, that is to say my God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me?
And so it is, obviously everything that Jesus Christ
said on the cross is not completely recorded for us.
Jesus said many things, we get to see many of those things
from the four gospels of what Jesus Christ
was saying on the cross.
It's my personal belief,
I can't be dogmatic about this,
it is my personal belief that all of these words
are Jesus Christ, not just verse number one,
but all of these words were said of Jesus,
either he said that through his voice
or whether that was an internal monologue within himself,
I personally believe that Jesus Christ
basically quoted this entire Psalm
as he was suffering on the cross,
because as we go verse by verse,
you'll notice that pretty much every,
I mean, every reference really is about Jesus Christ,
you can't miss it, okay?
Look at verse number two, he says,
oh my God, I cry in the daytime,
and of course Jesus Christ was crucified
during the day, right?
So he's crying to the Lord,
but as it says here, but thou hearest not,
and in the night season, and am not silent.
So he says, look, I've also cried at night,
and of course the most popular understanding of that
would of course be Jesus Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane,
up all night before his arrest,
crying to the Lord, crying to his father,
praying to his father,
understanding that what he's about to struggle with,
and so we see the Lord Jesus Christ in the daytime,
in the nighttime, crying to the Lord God.
Verse number three, he says here,
but thou art holy, oh thou,
that inhabits us the praises of Israel, okay?
Now, what this is saying here,
is because the father has forsaken Jesus,
Jesus is able to understand,
because he says, look, the father is holy, okay?
He's holy, he's separated from sin,
and in Habakkuk chapter one verse 13,
speaking of God, it says, thou art of purer eyes
than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity.
Look, the Bible says God cannot look at iniquity.
He cannot allow sin in his presence.
Wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously,
and hold of thy tongue when the wicked devour of the man
that is more righteous than he.
And so the reason the father had to forsake the son,
is because the son became the curse for us,
he became sin for us.
Second Corinthians 5 21 says,
for you have made him to be sin for us who knew no sin.
Praise God that Jesus took my sin, your sin,
the sin of the whole world upon himself on the cross.
But not just that, in that verse it says,
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him, okay?
And so it's not our own personal righteousness
that makes us right with God,
it's the righteousness which is in Jesus Christ.
We gave him our sin,
we gave him the curse that should have fallen upon us,
the wrath that should have fallen upon us,
that was put on Jesus, he paid for it,
and his righteousness, which is the righteousness of God,
okay, who knew no sin was put upon us.
Praise God that I can go to heaven
because of the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
Can you understand that?
That the father looks down at you
and sees the righteousness of Christ upon your life.
What an amazing thought, okay?
No wonder, you know, once you're saved,
you're always saved.
Otherwise you're saying the righteousness of Christ
was not enough, you know?
Once saved, always saved.
And so the father rejected the son.
And so, you know, this whole chapter
is just to bring our remembrance back
to the sacrifice of Christ, it's always good.
It's always good for us to go back
and think about what Christ has done for us,
remind ourselves of his great sacrifice,
and then so we can be challenged,
well, if God has done this for us,
Jesus Christ has sacrificed for us,
what can we do in return for him, right?
Look at verse number four.
It says, our fathers trusted in thee,
they trusted, and thou didst deliver them, okay?
So Jesus Christ recognizes that the only place,
the only hope of deliverance is through the father, okay?
And of course, don't forget this is King David.
King David's going through some anguish.
I don't know what it is.
King David had many challenges, many wars,
many enemies in his life, and he's saying,
you know, he's looking back at all the forefathers
that placed their trust on God,
and they were delivered through their trials, okay?
And so Jesus Christ on the cross is saying,
look, there's a coming a time
that I'm gonna be delivered from all of this,
and of course, we know what happened three days later,
right, three days, three nights,
he rose again from the dead,
he was victorious over sin and over hell and over death
and all the forces of wickedness that were against him,
but let this be a reminder to you, brethren,
that if you're going through troubles, okay,
you know, trusting in the Lord
is the only thing you can trust.
You know, hope in his deliverance is the only thing
that'll get you moving forward, okay?
It's not hope in anything else.
This world cannot give you the hope you need,
only the Lord God.
He was the hope that Jesus Christ
was relying upon the Father,
and even King David was relying upon the hope of God
to deliver him, okay?
Look at verse number five.
They cried unto thee and were delivered.
They trusted in thee and were not confounded, all right?
I'll just quickly read a passage to you in Acts 2.25.
It says, for David speaketh concerning him,
that's speaking of Jesus,
I foresaw the Lord always before my face,
for he is on my right hand that I should not be moved.
Therefore did my heart rejoice and my tongue was glad.
Moreover, also my flesh shall rest in hope.
These are the words of David, yes,
but these are the words of Jesus.
That hey, he's going to rejoice, he's hopeful,
he knows that his flesh shall rest in hope,
because he says in verse number 27,
because that will not leave my soul in hell,
neither will thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption.
And so that's speaking about his soul in hell.
He's also speaking about his flesh in the grave.
Jesus Christ is hopeful.
He knows he's gonna be delivered.
He knows there's coming a time
when he'll be resurrected from the dead, okay?
And brethren, our resurrection.
Look, I don't know how much
we're gonna suffer in this life.
I don't know how difficult it's gonna be.
For some, it's gonna be more difficult than others.
Sometimes we'll see deliverance immediately.
Sometimes we'll see deliverance a week from now,
a year from now, 10 years from now.
Who knows how long?
But if not, your deliverance will be at your resurrection.
At that point, when you have those new bodies, all right,
that can never sin, that's it, brethren.
You're never going to shed a tear ever again.
Your tears will be wiped from your faces
after the resurrection, after the rapture, okay?
That is our ultimate deliverance from this world,
our ultimate deliverance from sin
and from the troubles and turmoil that this world gives us.
Look at verse number six.
Jesus saying here, but I am a worm, okay, and no man.
So Jesus has lowered himself so low, right?
He just refers to himself like a little worm.
A reproach of men and despised of the people, okay?
So this should immediately bring to your remembrance
the fact that when Christ was on the cross,
he was being mocked by all the people, right?
By the chief priests, by the Jews of those days.
The Bible tells us in Isaiah 53 verse three,
he is despised and rejected of men,
a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our faces from him.
He was despised and we esteemed him not.
You know what the Bible's saying there?
And we hid, as it were, our faces from him.
You know, even the believers were ashamed.
Even Peter denied Christ, right?
Even his disciples fled away
when Christ was arrested and crucified.
You know, you would have done the same.
You would have loved Jesus Christ
during those three years of ministry,
but when he was arrested,
when he was brought before the authorities,
when he was crucified,
you would have hid your face as well, okay?
Jesus Christ was despised by all.
He was rejected by all.
He became that sin, not just rejected by God the Father,
but by all men, all right?
Verse number seven.
And they that see me laugh me to scorn.
They shoot out the lip and shake the head,
saying he trusted on the Lord
that he would deliver him.
Let him deliver him, seeing he delighteth in him.
What does that sound like to you?
Oh, I'll just read the passage.
Matthew 27, verse 41.
It says, likewise also the chief priests mocking him
with the scribes and elders,
saying 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 so as we're going through this chapter,
don't you notice this Psalm, right?
Don't you notice that every verse
is just referring to Christ?
The fact that he's been laughed, scorned.
The fact that he has his trust in God.
And you know what, brethren?
Yes, I just told you the only one we can trust
and the only one we can have deliverance is, is in God.
But when you put your trust and deliverance in God,
people will mock you.
They'll be laughing, hey,
when's God gonna save that person?
When is God gonna come through for them?
And you know as much as I know,
how many times God has seen us through.
Not only has he given us salvation,
how many times has he answered our prayers?
How many times has he given us the resources
in order for us to live in this life?
He's given us our every need, right?
God has come through.
God comes through today,
the fact that we can be in church,
you know, gathered together.
God has come through and planted this church
on the Sunshine Coast.
God is continuously delivering us
and giving us the requests that we have from him, okay?
And so the world will mock you.
And of course, the world mocked Christ.
You know, he did save others.
And they're saying, how can he save himself?
Verse number nine.
But thou art he that took me out of the womb,
thou didst make me hope
when I was upon my mother's breasts.
I was cast upon thee from the womb,
thou art my God from my mother's belly.
I love these verses,
because what King David is saying here
is that basically from his very birth,
you know, the God of the Bible has always been his God,
right?
His mother was saved, his father, you know, was saved.
And as soon as he was born, all right,
as soon as he was on his mother's breast,
he was hearing about God, all right?
He was one of, you know, from his very birth,
he was one of God's, well, he wasn't saved,
but of course he was, you know,
hearing about the Lord God.
And my joy in that is just knowing that, you know,
you may not have yourself grown up in a Christian family,
but your children have the opportunity, you know,
at a very young age, from a very early age,
maybe even straight from the womb
to know the God of the Bible, okay?
And so David's just reminding the Lord God,
hey, you've been my God since the very beginning.
You know, even though I need you now
in this time of anguish,
you've been my God from the very beginning.
And in Luke chapter one, verse 30, it says,
and the angel said unto her, fear not Mary,
for thou has found favor with God
and behold thou shall conceive in thy womb
and bring forth a son and shall call his name Jesus.
You know what?
Yes, Jesus is our God from all eternity past,
but even he, in the womb of his mother,
when he came into this world, right?
From the very beginning, the father was his God, right?
You know, Jesus Christ, you know, has a God, you know?
We need to understand the Trinity.
There is one God and yet God the father
is the God of Jesus Christ.
In 2 Corinthians 11, 31, it says,
the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
which is blessed forevermore knoweth that I lie not, okay?
And so even Jesus Christ has a God.
He had a God from his very birth
referring to the father there, okay?
And it's that same father that we saw in verse number one
that had to forsake him, had to reject him
for becoming the sin curse for us.
Look at verse number 11.
Be not far from me, for trouble is near,
for there is none to help.
So just a reminder there
that the only one to help in trouble is God.
The only one we should be going to is the Lord God.
Verse number 12, many bulls have compassed me,
strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round.
They gaped upon me with their mouths
as a ravening and a roaring lion.
Now I thought this was quite interesting
because Jesus is describing the people
that put him into this position as these animals,
these bulls, and I assume the bulls are strong.
You might be afraid that the bull will charge you down
if you face one in the field.
I had that experience once.
I remember I was in, a lot of my family in Chile have farms
and they've got all kinds of horses and cows and bulls,
and they've got these big fields.
So sometimes you might jump the fence and get into the field
and you don't really see the animal for a while.
And then all of a sudden, from the distance,
I'm looking at this huge bull, right?
And I'm like, oh no, do I move?
It's just like staring at it, it's just like.
I'm like, oh man, I just sprinted,
I just found the nearest fence.
That bull came charging, just found the nearest fence,
jumped over the fence, and of course,
I mean, I was far from the bull,
but it still gave me a lot of fright.
And so Jesus Christ is describing the people
that put him on the cross like these bulls
that want to tear him down, but not just a bull,
but these ravening and roaring lion.
And so I did a quick search,
because obviously we know the passage of the devil,
walking about as a roaring lion.
In 1 Peter 5, it says,
be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary,
the devil as a roaring lion,
walk about seeking whom he may devour.
And so what I started to notice is,
I didn't really know this until I started to look into it,
I was just curious, like where else in the Bible
does it speak about a roaring lion, okay?
And so of course, you know, the devil wants nothing more
but to destroy Jesus Christ.
I mean, the devil didn't understand the fact
that this was the mission of Christ,
that he came to die for us, okay?
You know, the devil tried to kill Jesus
when he was just a little child, remember that?
When children under the age of two
were killed throughout Jerusalem,
I mean, throughout, was it Jerusalem?
Bethlehem, Bethlehem, sorry, yeah, Bethlehem.
But I was just looking at some other passages
and if you can keep your finger then,
go to Proverbs 28, go to Proverbs 28, verse 15.
Proverbs 28, verse 15.
The Bible reads, as a roaring lion and a raging bear,
so is a wicked ruler over the poor people.
So thinking about, okay, a wicked ruler
is like a roaring lion.
And then I was thinking about, yeah,
Jesus Christ was brought before the rulers.
He was brought before Pilate and Herod
and, you know, he was brought before the governors
and yeah, they were the roaring lion as well.
They put him, they were the ones
that made the decision to crucify Christ.
I'll just read another passage to you in Ezekiel 22, verse 25.
This is the other reference of a roaring lion.
It says, there is a conspiracy
of her prophets in the midst thereof.
Like a roaring lion, ravening the prey,
they have devoured souls.
They have taken the treasure and precious things.
They have made her many widows in the midst thereof.
And so it says here that there's a conspiracy
amongst the prophets and of course,
the prophets are the religious leaders, right?
They're the ones that are preaching,
supposed to be preaching and teaching the word of God
and yeah, they also betrayed Jesus.
He was the chief rulers, he was the Pharisees,
it was these wicked religious leaders in that day
that arrested Christ and brought him
before the authorities.
And I just say, wow, every time it's talking
about the roaring lion and the devil of course,
you know, these are all involved
in getting Jesus to the cross ultimately, right?
In a very physical sense.
I was quite amazed at just how consistent the Bible is
with all these, you know, passages here of the roaring lion.
Back to Psalm 22, verse 14, Psalm 22, verse 14,
the Bible reads here, I am poured out like water
and all my bones are out of joints.
My heart is like wax,
it is melted in the midst of my bowels.
And so I just think about what does it mean
to be poured out like water?
I just found a reference in Lamentations,
I'll just read it to you, Lamentations 2.19.
Of course, this is about, you know,
the seven kingdom of Judah being taken into captivity
by the Babylonians.
What does lamentation mean?
It means to cry out, it means to weep,
it means to be full of sorrow.
And so the prophet Jeremiah, you know,
seeing the nation of Judah being taken into captivity
was filled with lamentations, was filled with sorrow.
And he says in Lamentations 2.19,
Arise, cry out in the night,
in the beginning of the watches,
pour out thine heart like water
before the face of the Lord,
lift up thy hands toward him
for the life of thy young children,
that faints for hunger in the top of every street.
And so the pouring out of your heart like water,
I believe is probably how we can understand
verse number 14 there,
is the fact that Jesus Christ, once again,
is calling out to God, calling out for help, right?
Because the seven kingdom here was being taken captive.
You know, the city of Jerusalem was under siege
by the Babylonians.
And so that's what I believe is being,
what's happened there,
that Christ is pouring out like water.
The other thought might be excessive sweating.
We know that when he was in the Garden of Gethsemane,
he sweat great drops, like great drops of blood.
And so it might be that he was just a very taxing thing
on his body, so he's full of sweat.
That's another understanding there.
But then it says in verse number 14,
and all my bones are out of joints.
If your bone is out of joints,
that's a dislocation, right?
It's a dislocated bone.
That's very painful.
I don't know if you've had that dislocated bone.
It's very painful.
It says here that all of his bones are out of joints, okay?
So when you look at, you know,
the Jesus movies where he's being crucified,
and you know, there are some bloody depictions of that,
but I've never really seen one where the guy's body
is just completely dislocated.
I don't know about you,
but that's what it's telling us, right?
That Jesus' body was completely out of joint
from all the beatings, the whippings, from the crucifixion.
I mean, I don't know exactly
how much he suffered physically,
but he was beaten to the point
where his bones are dislocated in his body, all right?
And so just the pain and suffering
that Jesus Christ went through for us.
Look at verse number 15.
My strength is dried up like a pot shed.
So he's lost his strength.
And my tongue cleaveth to my jaws,
and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.
So of course, Jesus Christ is about to die,
but it says he's tongue cleaveth to his jaws,
of course, speaking about the thirst, okay?
So not just the physical suffering on the outside,
but the thirst in his mouth.
John chapter 19, verse 28 says,
after this, Jesus, knowing that all things
were now accomplished,
that the scripture might be fulfilled, sayeth I thirst.
And so Jesus Christ, have you ever been so thirsty
where you just want that drop of water?
You know, Jesus Christ going through dehydration,
you know, so thirsty as well, what he suffered.
Verse number 16.
For dogs have come past me.
So he's speaking again about the people around him
as animals, as the dogs have come past me.
The assembly of the wicked have enclosed me.
They pierced my hands and my feet.
What an amazing verse.
Because crucifixion in the time of David
when he wrote this psalm,
it wasn't a form of death penalty.
It didn't exist, as far as I understand,
when looking at the history books.
Crucifixion did not exist during the time of David.
It was not a way that the people of this land
would put someone to death, right?
And yet somehow, through the work of the Holy Spirit,
and this is why we know the Bible is an amazing book
inspired by God, written by God.
God is the author, men moved by the Holy Ghost.
It's because he can write about such clarity
of the sacrifice of Christ.
It's so amazing how the Bible
just comes together like this, right?
And so, of course, the piercing of the hands and the feet
is the crucifixion.
You know, as I was preparing this sermon,
I was just going through this,
I'm just like, you know, Jesus Christ describing
these people as bulls and lions and dogs.
You know, I'm just finding myself getting angry
at these people.
You know, and of course, you know,
I understand that Jesus had to die anyway,
but just the hatred they had for him,
just the blasphemy, you know,
just laughing at him being the king and the son of God,
you know, just got me so angry thinking about these people.
And then I just remember what Jesus Christ said
on the cross in Luke 23, 34.
He says, Father, forgive them,
for they know not what they do.
Can you understand that?
I can't, I can't understand that.
Jesus Christ, full of mercy, full of compassion.
Remember, he didn't come to destroy,
not the first time anyway.
You know, he came to save, right?
And so even Jesus Christ was able to just ask God,
can you forgive them?
I mean, if my son is being tortured, you know,
by a group of wicked people, can I really,
look, can you forgive them?
You know, just be honest, I can't.
I can't forgive them.
I mean, you know, they haven't even apologized for it.
And Jesus just stepping in, preempting and just saying,
Lord, can you forgive them?
Father, forgive them.
You know, and of course, many of these are reprobate.
Many of these, you know, died in their sin
when went to hell.
And yet how many, you know, by the words of Christ here,
you know, probably, and we know one of the Romans
and Turians acknowledged that Jesus Christ
was the son of God.
I mean, there were probably many that just by watching
Christ, just like Moses lifted up the bronze serpent
in the wilderness, and people looked upon it
and were delivered from the venom of the snakes.
You know, how many people at that point in time
was looking at Jesus Christ and actually got saved
at that point and realized, wow, this is an innocent man.
He's dying for me.
You know, how many were driven to understand this sacrifice?
Who is this man?
And eventually got saved.
So, you know, that's what I, ultimately,
that's what I believe Jesus Christ is speaking about.
Those that were responsible to some extent
of putting them on there,
because remember it was the multitude saying,
crucify him, crucify him, okay?
So there must have been some of them in that midst
that actually ended up, you know, getting saved.
Look at verse number 17.
He says, I may tell all my bones,
they look and stare upon me.
So this is the same idea of the dislocation.
When it says here that I can tell all my bones,
it's the idea, you know, to tell is to give accounts, right?
You're telling something,
you're giving it an account of something.
When you go to the bank, you're dealing with a bank teller.
Okay, so they're responsible for accounting of money,
right, accounting.
And so the idea there, I tell all my bones,
is that while his body's all dislocated and out of joint,
Jesus can look at his body and he can count his bones.
He can see his bones sticking out, okay?
Now, you know, the prophecy is that Jesus,
none of his bones were broken, okay?
But they were definitely dislocated.
They were definitely, you were able to see it.
You were able to see those bones and count them on his body.
And so, and it says they look and stare upon me.
You know, in Isaiah 52 verse 14, it says,
and many were astonished at thee.
His visage was so mild, more than any man,
and his form more than the sons of men.
Okay, so Christ on the cross,
his visage was so mild, more than any man, okay?
I mean, he didn't even look like a man.
He was so disfigured when he was on the cross.
So bloody, so beaten, okay?
And he sacrificed for us.
You know, the physical suffering,
we're focusing on him more than the spiritual suffering
at this point in time.
But just the physical suffering was so great upon the Lord.
Look at verse 18.
How can we deny this is not about Jesus?
It's impossible, look at verse 18.
And they part my garments among them
and cast lots upon my vesture.
Of course, in John 19 verse 23, it says,
then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus,
took his garments and made four parts
to every soldier apart and also his coat.
Now the coat was without seam woven from the top throughout
They said, therefore, among themselves,
let us not rend it, but cast lots for it,
whose it shall be that the scripture might be fulfilled
which saith, they parted my raiment among them.
And for my vesture, they did cast lots.
These things, therefore, the soldiers did.
And so there's no denying that this Psalm
is about Jesus Christ, that his clothes were taken.
And remember that clothes in those days, very expensive.
They didn't have machines like we do today,
where it just takes a few cents to manufacture.
It takes a lot of time, it takes a lot of work
to put clothes together, good quality clothes.
And so instead of it being destroyed and thrown out,
the soldiers divided amongst themselves by casting lots.
Verse 19, but 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.
So once again, we see that King David and Jesus Christ,
by extension, asking the Lord God for help.
And again, these wicked people described as animals, right?
The power of the dog, the lion's mouth, you know?
This is the time when Jesus Christ was at his weakest,
the lowest points in his life.
But the part that I wanted to look at here in verse 21,
just right at the end, because people mock the Bible.
They say the Bible talks about unicorns, right?
This mythical, well, I don't know, maybe it was real.
Who knows?
I don't know.
You know how many animals have been extinct?
How many animals we don't even know about, right?
I mean, there could have been a horse with a horn.
I don't know, a single horn.
Why is that so impossible to believe, right?
I mean, I don't find that impossible to believe,
but of course people, you know, mock the Bible,
and it says, for thou has heard me
from the horns of the unicorns.
So what is a unicorn?
Just very quickly, okay?
So, you know, it's not some mythical beast.
It's obviously a true animal.
The unicorn is mentioned a number of times in the Bible.
And, you know, even today, even amongst the animals
that we do have on this earth,
we do have an animal that we call a unicorn today, okay?
And it's the Indian rhinoceros.
Most, you know, the most common rhinoceros has two horns,
but the Indian rhinoceros only has one horn, okay?
The Indian rhinoceros.
And the scientific name for it is rhinoceros unicornus, okay?
It's a unicorn.
Why?
What does it mean?
What does unicorn mean?
All right, like, you know, uno.
You ever played uno?
Uno in Spanish is one, single, okay?
And corn is just a reference to the horn, all right?
So unicorn is an animal with a single horn.
That's all it is, okay?
And the Indian rhinoceros has a single horn.
Hey, that's a unicorn.
I don't necessarily believe,
I don't believe actually that was the animal
that's been referred to here, okay?
And I don't know if you ever looked up rhinoceroses
and some of the ones that walked around during the ice
age, you know, with the woolly mammoth.
There's like this woolly rhinoceros
and there's the extinct giant rhinoceros,
which the scientific name is the elasmotherium.
You look it up yourself.
You can Google the giant rhinoceros.
It's extinct now.
And it's got a single horn as well, but it's massive.
It's huge.
It's like, it's, I can't even describe how huge it is.
It's massive, okay?
Compared to the average horn that you would see
on a rhinoceros, you know, today.
And of course, you know, the name of the rhinoceros,
why does it have that name?
You know, because rhino means nose.
You know, it's, I don't know,
I don't recommend this at all, but you know,
people that get themselves a nose job, you know,
the practice is called rhinoplasty, yeah?
So that's referring to the nose, the rhino bit of it, right?
And then of course, the rhinoceros,
the seros is again a reference.
It might be Latin or French for horn, okay?
And you know, that's not the only animal that we have
on this earth that has a single horn.
You guys might be familiar with that whale,
which is called the, or little,
like a dolphin-like creature, which is the narwhal, okay?
And it's got this sort of canine turf that protrudes,
looks like this horn, this single horn that sticks out.
And the scientific name for the narwhal
is the monodon monoceros, monoceros.
So mono, mono means one, and seros,
like rhinoceros, rhinoceros is one, is a horn, okay?
So even that animal is described as a unicorn,
and it's got one horn, right?
So we have another animal in the deep like that.
I personally believe that the unicorn referenced in here
is probably an extinct animal that we don't know about,
because if you research it,
we don't have time for it today,
it's an animal that could not be tamed.
You know, even rhinoceroses are being tamed
in like circuses and stuff like that
to stand on one foot or whatever they do
with those animals.
But it's an animal that could not be tamed by man, okay?
So maybe like, maybe a dinosaur,
maybe some type of dinosaur that,
you know, plenty of dinosaurs had a single horn.
If you look them up, I don't know how real
all these animals are necessarily, but you know,
it could be any kind of creature with a single horn.
But if you look at the end of verse number 21 very quickly,
it says, it now heard me from the horns of the unicorns,
sorry, of the unicorns.
And so you can see that there's not just one horn here,
there are several horns mentioned, okay?
But also, so it's in plural,
but also notice that the unicorn is also plural, okay?
So the reason why there's several horns
is because it's speaking of several unicorns, okay?
But each unicorn had a single horn.
Just another reference, keep your finger,
they go to Psalm 92, go to Psalm 92 for me.
Psalm 92, verse number 10, Psalm 92,
and verse number 10, it reads,
but my horn, so that's a singular horn,
shalt thou exalt like the horn,
singular horn, of a unicorn.
So the singular unicorn there.
I shall be anointed with fresh oil, okay?
So the unicorn's mentioned a few times in the Bible,
and even when Israel was delivered out of Egypt, right?
In Numbers 23, verse 22, it says,
God brought them out of Egypt,
he hath, as it were, the strength of a unicorn, okay?
So the unicorn is an animal of great strength,
and it's saying that God is like this unicorn
that delivered them out of Egypt, okay?
And so if we go back to Psalm 22, verse 21,
and it says, for thou hast heard me
from the horns of the unicorns,
that's a few things there to think about,
the fact that the unicorn is a very strong creature,
you know, it's referring here that
even though the Father did not deliver Jesus from the cross
because he had to die,
nevertheless, God has all power.
God has strength, God is horn.
He has multiple horns of the unicorns
that he is within, right, amongst.
You know, this could be a reference to the armies of heaven,
the angels that could easily have delivered Jesus
from the hands of the wicked.
And so, you know, even though, you know,
you may think of God today,
you're going through some difficulty,
you're going through some trial,
you know, your thought might be,
well, why isn't God helping me?
Why isn't God delivering me right now?
Look, don't let that discourage you
because God has the strength of a unicorn.
He can deliver you in the same way.
He can exalt you like the horn of a unicorn, okay?
He can lift you high.
And so Jesus Christ and of course David
just thinking about the strength that God has
and ultimately God will deliver them
through their trials, through their difficulties.
Look at verse number 22 now.
And so now we shift away from the crucifixion of Christ,
okay, and you know, like I said,
it's good for us to meditate from time to time
what Christ has done for us, all right?
Look at verse number 22 and when we do that,
when we understand what Christ has done for us, okay,
this should be our response in verse number 22.
It says, I will declare thy name unto my brethren.
In the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.
So that's our response, brethren.
Jesus has suffered for us, you know, he died for us.
You know, we look at the sufferings on the cross here
and it gets me angry sometimes, it gets me upset
to think about what Christ had to go through.
So what should I do?
I should go in the midst of the congregation
and sing praises to God.
I should declare his name to the brethren.
And where am I gonna find the brethren in the congregation?
Okay, that should be our response.
And of course this verse, you know,
just is repeated for us in the book of Hebrews
and I'll just read it to you, Hebrews chapter two verse 11.
It says, for both he that sanctifieth
and they who are sanctified are all of one
for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren.
You know what, Jesus is not ashamed to call you brethren.
He's brethren, okay.
And of course, when you look at verse number 22,
it says, I will declare thy name unto my brethren.
You know, when Jesus Christ came to this earth,
he came to declare the Father, okay,
and the authority that the Father has over all things.
And you know what we should be doing,
declaring the name of Christ,
declaring the name of the Father,
declaring the God who's given us salvation, all right.
In the midst, and then in verse number 12,
Hebrews two verse 12, saying,
I will declare thy name unto my brethren
in the midst of the church
will I sing praise unto thee in the midst of the church.
You know what, when you think about what Christ has done,
our response should be, I wanna be in church,
I wanna be amongst the brethren,
I wanna sing praises to God for what he's given me,
for his sacrifice.
That's the proper response, church, okay.
Remember, this is Jesus.
He's saying, look, I'm not ashamed
of calling you my brethren.
You know what, I'm not ashamed of you
being my brother or sister in the Lord.
I'm not ashamed because you've been saved.
You know, you're a sinner just like me, all right.
You know, we've all done wicked things,
we all deserve help, but God has delivered us.
I'm not ashamed to call you brethren
because I know what Jesus has done for you, okay.
And if I'm willing to accept what he's done for me,
I have to be willing to accept
what he's done for you as well, okay.
And so don't forget, this is David
also saying these words, right.
He's going through anguish
and he's going through difficulties,
but he says, you know what,
I'm gonna be in church anyway.
You know, even in the midst of my difficulties and trials,
hey, that's where you need to be the most.
You know, there are some people that will avoid church
when they're going through difficulties,
when they're upset, when they're frustrated,
when they're suffering.
It's like, I can't go to church,
but church is where you need to be.
Church amongst the brethren,
church where the Lord can meet you,
we can hear the preaching of his word.
That's where you need to be.
And so, you know, I'm thankful for the online work
that brother Matt's been doing, as I mentioned.
I'm thankful for that,
but you know, the online listeners,
don't let the preach,
don't let this become church for you.
You need to be amongst the brethren.
You need to find the best church you can find.
Make that a priority in your life, you know,
to be amongst the brethren
so you can be in the midst of the congregation
to praise the Lord God.
Church is where we need to be
when you're suffering the most, okay.
Verse number 23, Psalm 22, verse 23.
Ye that fear the Lord, praise him,
all ye the seed of Jacob,
glorify him and fear him,
all ye the seed of Israel, okay.
And of course, you know,
when David's saying this,
he's talking about his nation.
Hey, all of us that are the seed of Abraham,
we ought to be praising God.
We ought to have a fear of God.
But don't forget Galatians 3, 29.
It says, and if ye be Christ's,
then are ye Abraham's seed
and heirs according to the promise.
Listen, we are also the seed of Israel
because we're in Christ, okay.
We're the spiritual seed.
And so this is about us.
We ought to praise him.
We ought to fear him.
We ought to glorify God
for what he's done for us.
Verse number 24.
For he have not despised
nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted.
Neither have he hid his face from him
when he cried unto him, he heard.
Now brethren, we started by acknowledging
that the Father forsook the Son, okay.
But why did he forsake the Son?
So you would never be forsaken, that's why.
You know, we're never gonna suffer like Jesus did.
No matter how much you suffer,
God will always be there for you, okay.
But in Jesus' case,
he lost the fellowship of the Father.
The Father had to forsake him.
So you would never be forsaken
when you believe in Jesus Christ.
You know, Hebrews 13, five says,
for he have said,
I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.
Do you believe that, brethren?
You will never be left by God,
never forsaken by God.
You know, this is why we can cry to him.
He can hear, he can listen.
He will deliver us through our trials.
Verse number 25.
My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation.
I think we have a great congregation.
I think we have a great church.
I will pay my vows before them that fear him, all right.
So once again, church is the place we need to be
to praise God, to think about what he's done.
There's a reason why the church
is called the body of Christ,
because we remember the body of Christ
that suffered for us.
And now it's our job to continue the work
that Christ has left us to do, okay.
When we come to church, we are honoring his body.
We are honoring his sacrifice for us, all right.
Look at verse number 26.
Things take another shift in focus now.
So what we pick up from verse number 26
to the end of the chapter
is the millennial kingdom to come, okay.
So Psalm 22 started with Christ's lowest place
that he's ever been, okay.
The worst place he's ever been.
The lowest state he's ever been.
But he ends with him being exalted.
He ends with his highest place on this earth anyway, okay.
I know he's got all authority and power in heaven,
but at least on this earth,
it ends with his millennial kingdom,
which is the highest place of exaltation
that he's gonna receive on this earth.
Look at verse number 26.
It says, the meek shall eat and be satisfied.
They shall praise the Lord that seek him.
Your heart shall live forever.
Look, the meek shall eat and be satisfied, okay.
Now I couldn't help but think of Matthew 5 five,
the words of Jesus when he says,
blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth, okay.
So this is the exciting future that we have, okay.
That we are the meek.
We were meek enough to acknowledge
that we needed Jesus to save us.
That our works cannot save us.
You know, those that think their works will save them,
they're not being meek.
That's pride.
To think you're good enough for heaven,
what a show off, okay.
That's pride.
But it says, look, we shall eat and be satisfied.
You know, there's a coming a time
when we're gonna inherit the earth.
We're gonna be in charge of this whole earth, Reverend.
You say, I don't wanna be in charge of it right now.
Yeah, I agree.
I don't wanna be in charge of it right now.
But Jesus Christ will come back
and he's gonna have a new kingdom, a new earth.
Of course, you know, Christ coming back for a thousand years
and we're gonna rule and reign with him.
Look at verse number 27.
All the ends of the world shall remember
and turn unto the Lord.
Look at the next part.
And all the kindreds of the nations
shall worship before thee.
Wow, that's not now, brethren.
Not all kindreds of the nations are worshiping Jesus now.
In fact, most of this world hates Jesus.
Hate the Bible.
There's coming a time when the entire world
will worship Jesus.
And like I said, it ends with the most exalted position
he has on this earth.
Look at verse number 28.
For the kingdom is the Lord's
and he is the governor among the nations.
Praise God.
You know, normally if you're a governor,
you're the governor of one nation.
Or Jude's gonna be the governor of all nations.
Okay, he's gonna be in charge of it all.
In Isaiah 9, six, it says,
for unto us a child is born and unto us a son is given
and the government shall be upon his shoulder.
And his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor,
the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father,
the Prince of Peace.
And so the government, the whole government of the earth,
we put upon the shoulders of Jesus Christ, okay?
In Revelation chapter 11, verse 15,
and the seventh angel sounded
and there were great voices in heaven saying,
the kingdoms of this world are become
the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ
and he shall reign forever and ever.
And so an exciting future to come, brethren,
when we don't have to deal with these corrupt politicians
and this wicked government,
we're gonna have a government
upon the shoulders of Jesus Christ.
And you're gonna be part of that government system, okay?
You're gonna be part of it.
Look at verse number 29.
Well, actually, let's read 29 first.
And they that be fat upon the earth
shall eat and worship, okay?
So the people during this millennium kingdom,
those that are the most well off on the earth, okay,
they're gonna worship Jesus.
They're gonna eat, they're gonna have, right?
They got fat upon the earth, they will eat and worship.
And then it says, all they that go down to the dust
shall bow before him.
So those of a lower estate in the millennial kingdom,
they will also bow before Jesus.
Doesn't matter your class on the earth
during that thousand years.
No matter what you have on the earth, okay,
you're gonna be bowing down worshiping Jesus
and none can keep alive his own soul, all right?
Look at verse number 30 though.
Now, of course, we're gonna be worshiping Jesus, okay?
But then in verse number 30, it speaks of the seed again,
which I said is us.
You know, all the believers, the seed,
it says here in verse number 30,
a seed shall serve him,
it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.
So it's differentiating here in verse number 27, 28, 29,
that the whole earth will worship him
and we will worship him, okay?
But then there's a seed that will not just worship him,
but will serve him, okay?
And that's what we're gonna be doing in the millennium.
We're gonna be part of that government system.
We're gonna be ruling and reigning with Jesus.
We're gonna be serving him, okay?
We're gonna be in charge of what,
I hope I'm in charge of the sunshine ghost.
I don't know, maybe we'll arm wrestle about that.
In the new resurrected bodies though, not,
because Colin will win, I don't want him to win it.
In the new resurrected bodies, we'll arm wrestle,
I reckon I'll get the sunshine coast.
You guys can have Sydney, all right?
But we're gonna serve him, you know?
There's a specific seed being mentioned here.
And in 2 Timothy 2 11, it says,
for it is a faithful saying, for if we be dead with him,
we shall also live with him.
If we suffer, we shall also reign with him, okay?
We're gonna rule and reign with Jesus Christ
during that millennial kingdom.
And look at verse number 31.
They shall come and shall declare his righteousness,
and I believe the day here is the seed
that was just mentioned in verse 30.
They shall come and declare his righteousness
unto a people that shall be born,
that he have done this, okay?
So during the millennial kingdom, hey,
there'll still be people being born,
and guess what our job is during the millennial kingdom?
Soul winning, doesn't change, all right?
We're still to go there, people that are born
into the earth, and tell them about Jesus,
to declare the righteousness of Jesus
so they can also put their faith and trust
on Jesus and be a worshiper of his.
And so brethren, you know what?
The soul winning continues in the millennium, all right?
And let this be a challenge to us in verse number 31.
Hey, it's still our job today, it's our job today
to declare his righteousness,
to declare what Christ has done for us on the cross, okay?
His crucifixion, the fact that he suffered for us,
but also the exciting future of a heaven,
the new heaven, the new earth to come,
the fact that he's going to have
the millennium upon this earth,
these are all exciting things,
there's a future to be excited about, you know?
And that's what's gonna drive you out soul winning,
you know, remembering what Christ has done for us,
and being excited for the future to come.
Okay, let's pray.