[0:00] We are on our first Sunday of the month, and so it's communion service, and I know I, for one, need to be reminded regularly of the basics of our faith, which happens during communion and reminding me that I stand before God forgiven and ready for heaven because of the work of Jesus Christ, despite the ongoing problem that I have with my sin nature.

[0:45] Nature still i stand forgiven and ready for heaven and i have learned along the way that in this body of flesh it's never going to be different and so and as i learned the word of god i find out that that's supported and and i understand that and so i'm really set free in a a lot of ways and standing just blessed and so let's start with prayer we will we will be in psalm 22 and and lord we want to thank you for today that we could gather and we thank you for the cross. We thank you for loving us that much.

[1:35] We thank you that you had a plan set before the foundations of the earth ever existed. And you had us in mind, Lord. You're outside of time. We thank you, Lord, that we can trust that your plan is perfect and that we can trust that that we are perfectly part of that as imperfect people because of your grace and your love and your forgiveness. The blood that was shed for us who receive that forgiveness, Lord. And I pray that it would be everybody here today in this service, Lord, that they've yielded their life to you and accepted the forgiveness that has been given to us, Lord, who believe because of your great sacrifice. So bless this time we have now in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. So Psalm 22, we're going to look at verses 1 through 22. And the title of the message is Signed, Sealed, and Delivered.

[2:41] Signed, sealed, and delivered. And so we have that promise and that blessing. And so the Bible tells us that there is now, therefore, no condemnation for those of us in Christ Jesus. And, you know, it tells us that in Romans 8.1, There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. Now, beware of condemnation.

[3:25] Because it can come from unexpected places. Places and even those who genuinely care can be condemning and it's because they don't know their bibles and so they can come across thinking that they're speaking the truth trying to help but they end up being condemning they think they're doing in the name of the lord because Because they don't know their Bibles. The word there for condemnation means to condemn, to damn, to sentence. It's sort of like having the Old West theology, you might say, where the posse comes, guilty, hang them from the nearest tree. Where, you know, where judge and juror and hang them. And some Christians and come across that way. And the Bible says, no, there is no condemnation for us who believe. And so be careful. The truth is that we're all guilty.

[4:43] And that's what they get wrong. Somehow they come in on their high horse as if they're better. better and they're just as guilty and.

[4:57] Those that are apart from christ are guilty and those who are not apart from christ are forgiven yet in christ we are clothed in the righteousness of jesus christ, so now what part of that would bring condemnation if you're clothed in the righteousness of jesus christ forgiven god's grace has us covered and so if god's grace has us covered what part of that brings condemnation.

[5:38] The work of Jesus Christ on your behalf is either complete or not. And those who try to bring condemnation upon the believer do not understand their Bibles. Because his work on the cross is complete. Oh, how I need to be reminded of that.

[5:59] We need to be reminded of that. Because if we're not, we forget those things and then we're subject to condemnation. Be careful. of that and again you know we are traveling through the new testament we're between books but we're looking at several psalms and this particular psalm 22 is a psalm that i'm very familiar with over the years and it's not my first rodeo bringing it into a communion service of course and and rightly so you'll see as we go through but every time i go through as i was talking to someone before the service and how oh how god's word is alive and we go through it i've read that book we'll read it again you'd be surprised how the lord will speak to you you know i've read through the bible many times i've taught through the bible every verse and i'm almost through again but every time the bible comes alive and so once again psalm 22 and it's like so many other places in the Bible that record the events leading to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. We've spent a couple years going through the Gospels on the Passion series.

[7:18] Kind of dissecting the gospels and looking at it and just how amazing the record of all that jesus did and how we were encouraged to go through that i know it was a blessing but it's like so many other places in the scriptures that speak of that in psalm psalm 22 and 23 and 24 is what they call a triad.

[7:44] And it's just where three Psalms here are connected, they're linked together, you know, concerning the ministry of Jesus Christ. And they form a complete message in the sense that it's regarding here in 22, Jesus on the cross. And then when you get to Psalm 23, those of you probably very familiar with the shepherd's psalm, so to speak, and the presence of the ministry of Jesus Christ. And then when you get to Psalm 24, it speaks of the coming of the glory of Jesus Christ. And so that's why those three psalms linked together is called a triad. And, you know, some have referred to the three psalms as the cross, Psalm 22, the crook, Not a criminal, but like the hook on a shepherd's staff called the crook. And so the cross, the crook, and the crown, those three psalms. And so they represent the one who is, who was, and is to come. And it's interesting about Psalm 22 because there isn't anything in the life of David who wrote the Psalms that aligns with what's written here.

[9:09] And so, you know, whereas, you know, when you read Psalm 23, for instance, and you see the shepherd's psalm, and you see so much of what David wrote that was linked to David's life, it's kind of like the psalm we looked at last Sunday was Psalm 56, and we saw how that was linked to a time in David's life when he fled from Saul, and he went to the Philistines, and he was trying to hide out, but he was recognized. Eyes then he acted like a mad man trying to get out from under the pressure of that he was in and unable to save himself and and all of that and so but not this you know there's no indicators that, he is writing out of any personal experience but it is one place in the old testament like in Isaiah 53 where we come to holy ground.

[10:11] Is a good way to look at it. It described the crucifixion of Jesus Christ in greater detail than even the Gospels. As a matter of fact, it's the only place in the Bible that gives us the very emotions of Christ. And his expression and his own experience, being expressed when he is hanging on the cross and what he's feeling, what he's going through. And I think an example...

[10:54] Is that nowhere in here does it describe or give the detail of when he is pierced through by a Roman soldier and blood and water came out. And the reason that's not in there is because he wasn't alive then. He was dead. What's described in Psalm 22 is what Jesus was experiencing while he was living and dying, but still alive. Very powerful what's being communicated and so this psalm records jesus feelings his thoughts his struggle while he suffered upon the cross and this is why i'm referring to it as That's holy ground, prophetic, what is described here. And it's remarkable to say the least. And so we look at verse 1. I'll mention one other thing first. And this psalm was written a thousand years before Christ came. Came hundreds of years before the invention, you might say, of crucifixion by the Phoenicians. And then it was brought to a different level by the Romans.

[12:19] And so this was written before that by David, a Jew, who knew, like nobody knew anything about crucifixion. And yet we know one who had pre-planned the way of salvation that's described here, the one is Jesus Christ. And that's why it's so explicitly written.

[12:45] And so in verse 1, we see, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me and from the words of my groaning? And so this is one of the seven sayings from the cross that Jesus spoke. And this underscores how you place the context of what we're reading here. Jesus places Psalm 22 as that moment by quoting this verse 1. So he gives us the setting the meaning and this will of course not be an in-depth study through this psalm but i'd like to highlight here some main things and so this is a quote from jesus from the cross why are you so far from helping me why now jesus was all god and jesus was also all man. And so here, the human being is expressing, human emotion is something that's real.

[14:10] It's not sinful, human emotion. It's something that's part of us. And so Jesus is expressing in his humanity what he's feeling.

[14:24] Yet he could very well explain to you intellectually, accurately, and had and did and would completely what was going on. But he's expressing his emotion in this context. And I would say I thank the Lord because it helps me to understand myself as I would struggle at times. And it's not sin what's being described here. As a matter of fact, Jesus was without sin. That's important for us to know. no in his struggles whatever he had gone through he was without sin i remember you know having a conversation with my dad one time and my dad was a believer but he was raised catholic i was raised catholic but then i started going to calvary chapel and learning the word and he didn't but he became a believer but we were having a conversation and he said to me he says well i thought jesus sinned he didn't he didn't understand that i go i was like almost fainted when he said that you know but he didn't know he didn't know the word and i said no dad and i said you know tells us in hebrews 4 15 for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with their weakness but was in all points tempted as we are yet without sin and.

[15:53] But yet, when I hear different stories, when my dad was growing up, he was an altar boy, Catholic church, and he used to do his thing and then clean up after the Mass and all that.

[16:03] He used to be hanging up his robe and everything, and he'd peek through that back room, and he'd see the priests, you know, with their cigars and playing cards and betting and, you know, just all sitting around having. And he always thought, well, you know, that represented Jesus, you know. And so that's how his theology was being developed and all. And so it made more sense to me. But here's Jesus expressing his emotions and his struggles, my groanings. That's speaking of internal struggle as he's going through the agonizing effects of crucifixion. And then he actually, in the second part of the psalm, which we're not going to get to, he answers his own question. He makes known the reason you can read that through but verse two oh my god i cry in the daytime but you do not hear and in the night season and am not silent but you are holy enthroned in the praises of israel our fathers trusted in you they they trusted and you delivered them they cried to you and you delivered they trusted in you and you were not ashamed.

[17:26] Even though they were unfaithful even though they did all that they did they cried unto you and you answered them your faith limb where you at where you at now in the night season when i'm here and i'm calling out for you you're not delivering me in a sense he's expressing that It was dark for three hours while Jesus, in the middle of the day, or in the brightest part of the morning when Jesus was hanging on the cross, it suddenly got dark. And he's crying out to the Father. Well, they trusted in you. We're not ashamed.

[18:04] But in Isaiah, it explains the dynamics here, what Jesus is taking upon himself. In Isaiah 59, 1 and 2, behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, nor is his ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. It was at this time that Jesus took upon himself our sin. As the sinless one, he absorbed all our sins upon himself and the Father would not hear him.

[18:52] The sinless man experiences a sinner's penalty that up until this moment in time was utterly foreign to him. And in his humanity, he's crying out to God. Then he says, but I'm a worm and no man, a reproach of men and despised by the people, all those who see me ridicule me they shoot out the lip they shake the head saying he trusted in the lord let him rescue him let him deliver him since he delights in him i'm nothing more than a worm i'm not even a man that's how jesus was feeling the lowest place i mean think about a worm's life crawling around in the dirt not being able to see anything trying to make holes, and then at night poking your head out and if it stays poked out too long the birds will rip you right out of the soil and eat you early bird catches the worm right i'm nothing more than a worm.

[20:12] My daughter and I, my daughter Elizabeth and I, we got on the subject of talking about how there's fish, there's sea life way deep down in the ocean, 26,000 feet. There's a fish snail or something like that that lives down there. In the darkness surviving you know after about 400 feet light doesn't even penetrate they say certain violet or blue rays might make it down to 3300 feet but that's it they're 26,000 feet down no light living and i thought about that when you know jesus is describing what he's He's feeling as a worm, in utter darkness, calling out to God and not getting an answer as he's absorbing our sin upon himself.

[21:21] And Isaiah 53 describes this very thing as well. And then, interesting, he says, He trusted in the Lord, let him rescue him, let him deliver him. And, you know, so often like that, we're serving the Lord and people are watching us. Well, let's see what they do now. You know, let's see how they act now. Do they trust God now? Let's wait and watch and see what happens. And then what happens is we develop a testimony by our responses and by our reactions and by our heart and by our words. And then after we develop a testimony, we develop a track record.

[22:13] By our testimony and people watch and then either either people get impacted for the kingdom or they turn away and they think i don't want anything to do with the god that they say they trust in, but jesus and it's prophesied their words of prophecy because this is spoken by those who who brought Jesus into the illegal trials, and he ended up on the cross by the chief priest and the religious leaders. It tells us in Matthew 27, Likewise, the chief priest, also mocking with the scribes and elders, said, He saved others, himself he cannot save. If he is the king of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe in 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 the religious leaders believed.

[23:23] Said those very words concerning Jesus Christ. And Jesus, his thoughts racing, these things being said, a man struggling, a man agonizing in pain, but his thoughts never betrayed him.

[23:46] He expressed his emotions, but even in his struggles, he rationalized what was true his responses was for truth and that's always great practice as you look back in the stake that you know you're so sure when the lord spoke to you and you look back to that point you go i know that i know that i know that god showed me this in in in the midst of your emotion when what you're feeling isn't what you know but you're feeling it anyway and so you look back you rationalize by the spirit to things you know to be true despite your emotions and we see that jesus looks way back verse 9 but you are he who took me out of the womb You made me trust while on my mother's breast. I was cast upon you from birth. From my mother's womb, you have been my God. Be not far from me, for trouble is near, for there is none to help.

[25:05] And so human relationship, experience in his flesh from the beginning, Jesus looks to I made a decision to leave the throne of heaven and to come as a babe.

[25:21] This has been prophesied, and this is what's true. And he said, don't be far from me. There's none to help. No exaggeration. Jesus is acknowledging as a sin bearer, he is abandoned at this time. None to help, but be not far from me. So he just describes there his perfect connection to God while he is being this lamb slaughtered for our sake. And then, and this is very interesting, many bulls have surrounded me, strong bulls of Bashan, have encircled me. They gape at me with their mouths like a raging and roaring lion. What is being said here? Well, Jesus is describing the spiritual realm.

[26:30] These beasts were not around that described in the Gospels. He was describing that spiritual realm. Nowhere else in Scripture does it give us this visual that Jesus is looking at. Not mentioned anywhere in the New Testament. What was actually hidden to everyone else that was there. This spiritual realm. And he described it. And he says that they're gaping at me with their mouths like a raging, roaring lion. The nature of a lion he attached there in this spiritual realm. How frightening.

[27:14] A lion. I know I tell this story before when I was out bow hunting not far from here in Tumalo, White Rock. I had my bow and I'm out before light and I'm walking through the junipers. And I get out there about half mile from my truck and all of a sudden I hear a lion roar like it was next to me. I mean, an African lion. I'm thinking like, what did I just hear? And I just, with my little bow, you know, no sidearm, I carry a sidearm now, but just my little bow and I just backed out and turned around and went back to my truck. Later to find out that somebody was given license to have lions right there at the edge of the canyon i didn't know that i just know that my ears didn't deceive me that was an african lion i didn't need no more explanations i was out of there it was frightening and my wife tells the the story of when she was at a zoo with the kids one time and and she's uh taking picture of a lion and all of a sudden the lion decided just to turn and roar at her so the lion turned and roared at her and she fell back and landed on her bottom. It was so powerful of a roar.

[28:32] And frightening. I mean, I can't imagine being in the wild with a lion. And so Jesus is there. He describes it that way. And then he says, I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It has melted within me. My strength is dried up like a pot shirt and my tongue clings to my jaws. You have brought me to the dust of death for dogs have surrounded me. The congregation of the wicked has enclosed me. They pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones. They look and stare at me. They divide my garments among them and for my clothing they cast lots powerful description there again personal experience his very internal organs his heart was drowning.

[29:43] There's a medical term to to that sack around the heart and if it gets water it begins to put but pressure upon the heart. And so he's describing what's going on internally. And he created the body. He knew exactly what was going on inside of him. As he began to get dehydrated, and his tongue just began to stick to the sides of his mouth there, and to the point that they, when he did speak, they got what he said wrong. You know, it tells us in Matthew 27, again, it says, in about the ninth hour.

[30:25] Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabbathani, that is, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And some of those who stood there when they heard that said, oh, the man is calling out for Elijah. That's what it sounded like to them. And immediately one of them ran and took a sponge and filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed and offered it to him to drink. The rest said, let him alone let us see if Elijah will come to save him and jesus cried out again with a loud voice and he yielded up his spirit and tells us in other gospels that when he cried out that last time he says it is finished that's why he received the vinegar it was finished and it cleared his tongue so that he could be clearly heard because until then they didn't understand what he's saying when his tongue was sticking to his mouth. And he took that vinegar so that it would be clear what was being said.

[31:27] And he looked up, and his bones were staring him out of joint, but not broken. The Bible tells us not a bone would be broken, and that's why when the Roman soldiers came to break his legs and found out he was already dead, they didn't break his legs. The two thieves on both sides they broke both of their legs but not the legs of Jesus and then my clothing they cast for lots and that's in every gospel records that but you O Lord do not be far from me O my strength hasten to help me so in the midst of this he's calling upon the Lord God for his strength.

[32:14] Deliver me from the sword, my precious life, from the power of the dog. Save me from the lion's mouth and from the horns of the wild oxen. You have answered me. So in the midst of this, God answered him.

[32:32] And so he received that word, praying as his physical life ends. and it's interesting. I want to end with the verse 22 there. I will declare your name to my brethren in the midst of the assembly. I will praise you. I will praise you. It's interesting because that's the first mention in the Bible of the word Hallel, praise. And it's here.

[33:13] Now the Psalms are called the Hallel Psalms. They're referred to that. But in the Bible, all the way from Genesis until this point, that word has never been used. I will praise you. And there's a rule of first mention that you'll find many times in the Bible when an important key word is used, like grace. When is grace first used in the Bible? Well, Noah found grace in the sight of the Lord. Well, what's the significance of the first mention of it there? Deliverance from judgment under the grace of God. When's the first time you see love used in the Bible? In Genesis with Abraham and Isaac.

[34:04] And his son, his beloved son, who he was called to sacrifice, it was the first time the word love is used in the Bible in relationship to the picture of a father sacrificing his son, your only son.

[34:23] And so we see the significance here with praise Because the word there, halal, means to shine. It means to flash forth light, to praise. So you get the greatest meaning in praise is when Jesus Christ sacrificed his life for us. He was shining. It was a burst of light, a praise to boast. And so Jesus Christ is the boast of the Father. And so we rejoice in that. It's not a coincidence. These things are written just like that for our learning so that we might glorify the Lord. And so the ushers are going to come forward now and they're going to bring the cup and the bread. And so if you're a believer today and if you know the word of God you also know that you're a sinner you're a believer and you're a sinner, and communion's for you.

[35:37] You might be having the worst of times. Communion's for you. If you're an unbeliever, communion would have no meaning to you. But if you say yes to Jesus Christ and you acknowledge him as Lord and Savior, you too can enter in to this time of communion and take that cup, take that bread, look to the Lord, ask for his touch and his healing. And so let's pray. Lord thank you so much for loving us for all that you endured with us in mind, Lord we just commit this time to you Lord only you know where the hearts of your people are, Lord you're the only one we don't even know our own hearts our own hearts can deceive us but I pray that it would be in the resolve of everyone here, today to commit their hearts and their lives and their emotions, and their lack of understanding and all that goes with living this life and coming up short and all of that, Lord, to you at this time.

[36:50] Asking you, Lord, for forgiveness and for new beginnings and fresh starts and healing and that your spirit would work mightily in our lives. So we commit this time to you, Lord, and we ask for all that in faith and in trust for your faithfulness in our lives. In Jesus' name, amen.