Jesus Has Taken Your Fear Upon Himself To Free You To Worship

Isaiah 46 and God’s Promise to Carry His People

Please stand for the reading of God's word. We're in Isaiah 46, which is page 607 in the Bible before you. Isaiah 46. This is the word of the Lord. Bell bows down. Nebu stoops. Their idols are on beasts and livestock.

These things you carry are born as burdens on weary beasts. They stoop, they bow down together. They cannot save the burden, but themselves go into captivity. Listen to me, O house of Jacob. All the remnant of the house of Israel who have been born by me from before your birth, carried from the womb, even to your old age, I am he.

And to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made and I will bear. I will carry and will save. To whom will you liken me and make me equal? And compare me that we may be alike. Those who lavish gold from the purse and weigh out silver in the scales hire a goldsmith, and he makes it into a god.

Then they fall down and worship. They lift it up to their shoulders. They carry it. They set it in its place and stand there. It cannot move from its place. If one cries to it, it does not answer or save him from his trouble.

Remember this and stand firm. Recall it to mind, you transgressors. Remember the former things of old. For I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is none like me. Declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying my counsel shall stand and I will accomplish all my purpose.

Calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country, I have spoken and I will bring it to pass. I have purpose and I will do it. Listen to me, you stubborn of heart, you who are far from righteousness.

I bring near my righteousness. It is not far off and my salvation will not delay. I will put salvation in Zion for Israel, my glory.

The Crucifixion in Matthew 27 and the Son of God

Our New Testament reading comes from the Gospel of Matthew on page 834 in your pew Bibles. We will start Matthew 27, 24, and 25 and continue with 32 to 54. So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, I am innocent of this man's blood.

See to it yourselves. And all the people answered, His blood be on us and on our children. As they went out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. They compelled this man to carry his cross. And when they came to a place called Golgotha, which means place of a skull, they offered him wine to drink mixed with gall.

But when he tasted it, he would not drink it. And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots. Then they sat down and kept watch over him there. And over his head they put the charge against him, which read, This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.

Then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left. And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself.

If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross. So also the chief priests with the scribes and elders mocked him, saying, He saved others. He cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel. Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him.

He trusts in God. Let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, I am the Son of God. And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way. Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour.

And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lima sabathnei, which is, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And some of the bystanders hearing it said, This man is calling Elijah.

And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. But the other said, Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him. And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.

And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, and the earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised.

And coming out of the tombs after his resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many. When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, Truly, this was the Son of God.

You may be seated.

Good morning.

Tim was supposed to preach this morning, but he deferred to me, so all complaints go to him. This is weird. Can I get a water? I thought I brought one up here. All right. Please open your Bibles to Psalm 22, please.

Psalm 22 and Crying Out When God Feels Far Away

Psalm 22. We will continue in the Psalms after that two-week series there. Psalm 22, verse 1. To the choir master, according to the doe of the dawn, a psalm of David. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest. Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.

In you our fathers trusted, they trusted, and you delivered them. To you they cried and were rescued. In you they trusted and were not put to shame. But I am a worm, I am not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people.

All who see me mock me, and they make mouths at me, they wag their heads. He trusts in the Lord, let him deliver him, let him rescue him, for he delights in him. Yet you are he who took me from the womb.

You made me trust you at my mother's breast. On you was I cast from my birth, and from my mother's womb you have been my God. Be not far from me, for trouble is near, and there is none to help. Many bulls encompass me, strong bulls of Bashan surround me.

They open wide their mouths at me, like a ravening and roaring lion. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joints. My heart is like wax, it is melted within my breasts. And my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws.

You lay me in the dust of death. For dogs encompass me, a company of evildoers encircles me, and they have pierced my hands and feet. I can count all my bones, they stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.

But you, O Lord, do not be far off. O you, my help, come quickly to my aid. Deliver my soul from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog. Save me from the mouth of the lion. You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen.

I will tell of your name to my brothers. In the midst of the congregation I will praise you. You who fear the Lord, praise him. All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him. And stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel.

For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted. And he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard when he cried to him. From you comes my praise in the great congregation. My vows I will perform before those who fear him.

The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied. Those who seek him shall praise the Lord. May your hearts live forever. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord. And all the families of the nation shall worship before you.

For kingship belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations. All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship. Before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, even to the one who could not keep himself alive.

Posterity shall serve him. It shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation. They shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn that he has done it. God in heaven, I am thankful that we can open up your word.

And we can see, Lord, that there is, Lord, all reasons to trust in you. There are many things that happen in our life that cause our hearts to draw away from you and to fear the circumstances that are before us, but we know, Lord, that this is all even for our good and for your glory.

Lord, it is good to trust you despite the circumstances, despite our feelings, for us to put our trust in you is faith indeed. So I pray, Lord, that this word open to us as we look and see Jesus clearly in it, that you would teach us what it looks like to have faith in you despite being in circumstances that are less than ideal.

I pray, God, that our faith would be strong as Jesus is strong. I pray that since there is everything that we have laid up in Christ and what he has done for us, Lord, it would have the result in our hearts of worship to you, even in our tears.

Even in times in which you do not feel near, may we wait upon you. Lord, let us be this sort of people because this is the type of people that Jesus is forming in us. So praise be to our great God and Savior who has done the work.

May he be glorified now, even in this sermon. And may those who listen, listen with ears of faith. In Jesus' name, amen.

Nice.

Fear, Trust, and the Christian Life Under Pressure

So I'm ashamed to say this, but I very much do not like airplanes. I don't like flying at all. It's a borderline phobia for me. If I'm allowed to use that word. And I notice that, and I still do it. I can't be one of those people that will refuse to do it.

So if I need to do it, I'll do it. And I notice that as the plane begins to do what it's created to do, what's the whole function of it, is the more I don't trust it. As I'm in the airplane and we're kind of waiting on the takeoff, you know, it kind of feels like I'm in a great Houghton bus.

I can accept that, you know, in a bus and driving. It's fine. I feel safe and secure. And I trust the airplane. But as soon as the airplane starts to take off and gain speeds that no human should be at, my trust starts to dwindle in both the aircraft and the pilot that's in the cockpit.

And as the plane continues to do stuff that it's supposed to do, I trust it even less as it goes off the ground into the clouds where we don't belong. And it just is a terrifying event. And I'm just cruising up in the clouds, convinced that the engine is shutting off at each and every second.

But then, you know, planes are meant to take turbulence. You know, it's supposed to get shaky sometimes. It's supposed to withhold it. But I don't believe that for a moment. So the moment it starts to shake at all, of course we're about to go down.

And, you know, I don't think it's so much about death. I think I'm all right with dying. It's just the terrifying few seconds of the plane going down and all the screams and mayhem in the airplane. That would be too much.

It would be too much. And so I think that is the nucleus of my fear there. But nevertheless, when the plane is created for these things and it's doing what it's created to do, bringing us to the destination as we go through turbulence or anything, my trust goes down the drain.

And it reminds me of how God is creating us, creating you if you are a believer in Jesus. And he's doing something very specific as well as we've been talking about. He is doing something very particular in you.

He's creating you after the image of Jesus. That is the whole process that's going on in your life. That's the whole purpose of what's going on if you're a believer upon him. And yet, when that starts to look a certain way, by definition, by predetermined plan of God that this is the way it's going to look, I believe, I'm not the only one, in which I begin not to trust him anymore.

We are not created after the image of Jesus over time through our sanctification, through an easy process. But as we talked about the last couple of weeks, it's through conflict. And so that's the whole process, that's the whole determination by God that this is the way it's going to look for you to look like Jesus.

And as it happens, we're like, no, I don't trust you there. I don't like that at all. Make it easier. But this is what God has for us. And the last couple of weeks, actually, is kind of bleeding into this week, in which the last couple of weeks we talked about the whole conflict of sin in you and taking care of that so you look more like Jesus.

And that's just part of what is going on in your life. And it is not a fun process, but a glorious one, nevertheless. This week, we're going to look at the same kind of idea, only instead of looking at the sin in you that you are to have conflict over, we see that God's ordaining your Christian life to have sin in the world against you.

That you will have conflict with the sinful system as it approaches you and encroaches on you. And it's through this conflict here that we are looking more like Jesus. But it's also during this time that it is very extremely difficult, and we don't want to trust Jesus as he's doing that work in us.

So what happens when conflict emerges between you and the world? And God does not feel as near as you would like him to feel? Again, what happens when there is now a conflict, an issue between you and the world, whatever that may look like, and God is not feeling as near as you would like him to fear?

You see, in our weaker moments, we might think that something is inherently wrong here, where God is saying, this is for your good, my glory, and part of the process of you looking more like Jesus. How does that work?

Well, that's what we're going to look at here. You see, because if you look in Psalm 22, verse 1, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me from the words of my groaning?

Verse 2 of Psalm 22, Oh my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night I find no rest. See, this is a psalmist, this is David here, who is facing all these problems from the world, and it's distressing him, it's causing him to have to very put his trust in God, but yet God feels totally distant and not near to him.

It's almost as if God made a mistake there, and it's on accident distant. But we see, and we're going to see, that this is all a process that God has for the believer in Christ to actually grow him more.

See, this is the man, or the woman, who is in the airplane that doesn't trust it to begin with, and now it's starting to shake out of control, and there is very little trust to be had for the process.

This is the person who has been called out from darkness of the world, and the world is persecuting that person, persecuting you, and you are crying out to God to help you, and instead, all you're getting are crickets.

What do we do in that moment? How do we handle that situation? I see the next couple groupings there, is I think what the psalmist is doing, is he is reminding himself, verses 3 -5 and verses 9 -11, if you see those groupings there, I think he's reminding himself, and as you should remind yourself in those situations, of objective facts about God, even when you don't subjectively feel it.

And if this sounds familiar, it's because we kind of addressed this theme already in the Psalms. This is a common part of your worship, and so if the Psalms repeat it, perhaps we should repeat it as well.

So we see that the reaction of the psalmist is right on point, that he reminds himself of the objective truth found in God. And this counteracts his subjective feelings he has in his heart, that is terrified because he does not feel God being present.

And what's the first thing that he reminds himself? Look at verses 3 -5, objective truth, this is what we must do, this is what you must do, when God feels very distant, while you're being attacked by some kind of system in the world, and he feels distant.

What are you to do? Well, you are to remind yourselves of the truth that you know to be true because of God's word. Look at what he says in verses 3 -5,. Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel, and you our fathers trusted.

They trusted you and you delivered them. To you they cried and were rescued, and you they trusted and were not put to shame. You'll notice that in his moments of weakness of saying, where are you God, I am feeling this, I, I, I, whenever he's doing things in which he's reminding himself of who God is, that is the proper antidote.

In other words, in your trials and your hardships, whenever these things are going on, you must put your thoughts upon God and what he has said to be true about himself. That is where your main thoughts must go, and then your problems need to kind of go off from that.

And this is what the psalmist is doing here. My God, my God, why are you so far away? Why have you forsaken me? And then he says, Yet, so he's going to tell himself truth here. I know this to be true.

You are holy and you're unthrown upon the praises of Israel. And then he alludes to what God has done in the past. He says, Our fathers trusted in you and you delivered them. Surely if you delivered the covenant people of the past, you'll deliver me here and now, even though you don't even feel like you're there.

You've done it in the past to your children. I'm your child. You'll do it for me too. To you, the covenant children of the past cried out and they were rescued, and knew they trusted and were not put to shame.

So what is the objective truth that he's laying his heart and his mind upon in the time in which God feels so far he doesn't feel him? That God, historically, you have taken care of your people. And I am your child.

You shall take care of me too.

Objective truth.

But you see, in order to know that, you know what we need to know and celebrate?

History.

I know history is a bad word to some people.

It shouldn't be.

But we need to know church history. You know it's very, very good for you to pick up some books on church history to see how godly people before you who are in covenant with God has handled situations before.

Biographies on godly men and women are something that we all should be reading consistently throughout the year because we need to remind ourselves of what God has done to the people of God before us in situations like this.

It will be a bulwark for us as we consider, God, you were good to your people before. You shall be good to me now. One of the, I think, negative effects, although it's a good thing, of relying solely on a public school system is that we know the history of America.

Well, some of us do, I guess. But we know all about the veterans and the people who laid down their life for the nation, which is good. I would never discourage that. But how much are we teaching our children about how the saints before us had laid down their lives for faithfulness to God because of his promises?

How many martyrs' names do we know offhand? How much do we celebrate their history? These are people who have went before us, that walked the walk of faith, and laid everything down on a line in trust to our God.

And in moments where we don't want to trust them because we don't feel like it, we need to look at them and their story and say, as they have done it, so I know that I have the spirit, I can do it too by his grace.

But we need to know their history. We need to know their story. We need to know what happened. We need to celebrate the history of God's people and to look into it because this is what I think David is doing here.

He's looking at the history of God's people. God, this is what you've done for them. Even though I don't feel you right now, objectively, this is what you have done, and so therefore I need to believe and trust that you will do that for me.

You see, the whole theme that's going on here is that I will trust despite the fact that I am in fear right now. I shall trust despite the fact that I'm not feeling like it. And here we see what he lays his eyes on is that you have taken care of people before, your people before, and you shall take care of me.

You see, this is what happens, though, when we're fighting our sin. This is what happens whenever we're trying our best, that, okay, I know I'm not having a good reaction here. I know I'm living by fear.

I know this. And so we'll tell ourselves truth like that, but then we'll kind of argue with ourselves. And I think this is what's going on in this psalm, right? He says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Why are you so far from me? Verse 3, yet, and then he tells himself truth, but then he goes back in verse 6, but the problem is I'm not like them.

I'm a worm.

I'm not even a man.

And he says God's people before you've rescued, but God's people today, Israel around him today, they were the issue. He says I'm scorned by mankind and despised by the people. I think he means the covenant people, the people of God.

He says they see me and they mock me. They make mouths at me.

They wag their heads.

He trusts in the Lord. Let him deliver him. Let him rescue him, for he delights in him. I think what the psalmist here is saying is that, yeah, you've done great things for God's people in the past, but God's people right now are wagging their head at me saying, folly on you for trusting in the Lord.

I think he's going back and forth here, struggling with his fear. You see, and it's very remarkable that the persecutions or the hardships that he's facing isn't because of his sin. It's because of his righteousness.

And, again, that's been a theme before in the psalms, that part of the issue of him and the hardship that he's facing that's causing him to want to be in fear and not trust God is that because of his righteousness he's being persecuted by supposedly God's people.

And so we can see that there is a back and forth going on here. And there is a good reason that the psalmist feels, that David feels within his heart that I am not to trust God now, but live in fear because of this situation.

But look how he answers that objection. He says, you have been kind to the people of God before. You've brought them through. But yet the people of God right now are persecuting me, so to speak, the people of God.

And he says, so where is my trust supposed to be now? And so he goes back even to when he was born. Look at verses 9 through 11. Yet, again, now he's going back to speaking objective truth to himself.

He says, yet you are he who took me from the womb. You made me trust you at my mother's breast. On you was I cast for my birth. And from my mother's womb you have been my God. So he says, therefore, be not far from me, for trouble is near, for there is none to help but you.

You see, the point that he's getting at is I've been learning to trust you, even though I'm struggling with doing it now and I don't want to do it now. I want to live in fear and not trust you. I've been trusting you since the very beginning.

Even before I even was cognitive of anything, I was learning to trust you because what do babies do by very natural instinct? They learn to just go for milk where it may be, for food where it may be. Who puts that instinct in them?

Well, it's God. And so even a newborn baby trusts upon the things that God has given them to survive, to naturally go to their mother for milk. One of the things that a baby will do, that after birth a baby will be brought out from the canal and put on the mother's chest, right?

That's the first thing that happens. They take the baby and cast it upon their mother's chest who will provide strength and life for it. But the psalmist here, the way he speaks objective truth to himself is he's like, he's not denying the fact that he was cast upon his mother's breast, but what he's saying is it's as if I was cast upon you, oh God, because you're the one that provided the whole situation for me to have life.

See, he sees God behind the means of his mother being the one who he is truly trusting in the whole situation, even as a baby. So the point is that if I was trusting you as an infant and you were taking care of me, why should I not trust you now?

Why should there be a rupture even whenever I don't feel you close? Truly I was trusting you as an infant. I shall trust you even now. You see, I think here, going forward, he talks about the nature of the turbulence.

He talks about the nature of the issue that's going on right now, of why he is tempted to live in his fear and not trust God. And he says in verses 12 through 13, he says, Many bulls encompass me. Strong bulls abashed and surround me.

They open wide their mouths at me like a ravening and roaring lion. You see, I think the first point there of the nature of the turbulence, the nature of the person who is persecuted or the group that persecuted him, is it's a powerful foe.

The Bashan area, which he alludes to here, is east of Israel, northeast of Israel. It's a very nice fertile land where cattle can eat and grow very big and powerful. And he's saying, My foes are like the powerful cattle, in which they are huge and mighty and too powerful for me.

This is too much for me, God, and I don't feel you right now, so therefore I am in fear. So the nature of the turbulence is that his foes are very powerful. And so we can, in our own problems, say, Well, I can trust God, but once the situation looks way too powerful for me, that's when I can throw trust out the window.

And this is what the psalmist is struggling with now. That if the problem is within my area of being able to handle, I'm good, but the moment it gets beyond that and I don't feel God, now I'm going to lose it.

And I think, again, going back to my goofball airplane analogy, that's why I don't like airplanes too, is I can't control the pilot, I can't control the airplane. I don't even like my wife driving the car.

I like to drive the car. But it's beyond, in the airplane, my control. I'm just sitting there while the plane is about to obviously go down. But the thing is, is that this is not the way that a godly person shall act.

Even amongst this time in which the foe seems far too large, we do not then go into fear. We do not then go into a lack of trust of God, but rather something else is to happen, as we'll see. But not only in verses 12 -13 is there a powerful foe, but look at 16 -18.

It is a wicked foe. Look at 16 -18. For dogs encompass me. So he at first says, bulls encompass me, but now he says, dogs encompass me. A company of evildoers encircles me. They have pierced my hands and feet.

I can count all my bones. They stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them. And for my clothes they cast lots. I think what he's saying there is that not only are they strong, but strong and wicked.

They are wicked dogs that just want evil to happen. In fact, they simply want to steal my clothes from me. And not only that, the nature of his turbulence, is not only do I see a powerful foe, a wicked foe, but also in verses 14 -15 we see that he is physically weak.

Look, I am poured out like wax in verse 14. And all my bones are out of joints. My heart is like wax. It is melted within my breasts. My strength is dried up like a posture. My tongue sticks to my jaws.

You lay me in the dust of death. So this is the nature of his problem, of his conflict, is that not only is he spiritually weak, in which he doesn't feel God near, but he's physically weak in which he cannot even barely stand up.

And his foe that is approaching him is strong and wicked. This is not a good situation to be in. But yet we have this beautiful cry. In verses 19 -21, in which he waits upon the Lord. He says in verse 19 -21,.

But you, O Lord, through describing the turbulence, through describing his desire to fear and not trust, and describing the terrible situation, he says,. But you, O Lord, do not be far off. O you, my help, come quickly to my aid.

Deliver my soul from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog. Save me from the mouth of the lion. See, I think what he's doing there is he's waiting upon the Lord. Despite the fact that I don't feel you, I'm spiritually, physically weak, I have this situation that is scary, I am still crying out to you and I shall wait for your deliverance despite my feelings.

And blessed are you when based off of how you're feeling, you have no reason to wait for the Lord. But because you believe in his promises over your feelings, you do. Again, blessed are you when based off of your feelings, you have no reason to wait upon the Lord.

You have no reason to wait upon the Lord, but because you believe in the promises of God over your feelings, you wait upon the Lord. You see that conflict right there in which I will not be ran by emotions or feelings, I shall be ran by the objective truth found in God's word and I shall wait upon those promises despite my feelings.

You see that that is an area of great growth in your life. That God would look kindly upon you to let you be in a situation in which you're overwhelmed with worry and concern, no reason at all to trust upon God because of your feelings, but yet because you believe upon his promises, you shall wait upon the Lord.

He orchestrates that to happen in your life so that you would mature in that way. But it's a very bad thing to turn away from the Lord because of your feelings. You forfeit all sorts of maturity and growth that you can have to turn away from the Lord because your feelings happen to not be in agreement with you.

But again,.

Blessed are you when despite your feelings, you wait upon the Lord because you believe upon his promises. And I think that's what's happening here in the psalm. Look at Psalm 27, 14. Look at Psalm 27, 14, the very end of it.

David says, wait for the Lord. Be strong and let your heart take courage. Wait for the Lord. In those moments where your heart is very weak and you are looking to other things because you don't feel God present, the teaching of scripture is to find your joy in waiting for him, trusting that he will come for you in his time.

Learning to live by faith despite your feelings is an essential part of God creating you after the image of Jesus. Learning to live by faith despite your feelings is an essential part of God creating you after the image of Jesus.

Remember what we talked about with desires and pleasures the last couple weeks. Those who are not following Christ, they are a slave to their feelings and desires. But we are not a slave to that. We are a slave to Jesus.

And so he orchestrates these times in our lives in which we are faced with a powerful, wicked foe. We are physically weak, spiritually weak. He allows that for a purpose in which I will in this moment put my faith upon the promises of Christ and not by my feelings.

You see, that is for your good so that you would image Jesus in that. But how often are you like me, screaming at the top of your lungs, turbulence, 35 ,000 feet up in the air saying this thing is going down while God is doing this for your good?

Moving forward,.

Christ’s Suffering, Our Union With Him, and Worship

In the latter part of this psalm, and I want to quickly.

Move through this.

This is what happens when you try to do a psalm that is 31 verses long. But we see from 22 to 31 we have this conviction that he has been answered but we don't see how. It's kind of strange if you look at it.

Look at verse 21b or the second part of it. You have rescued me from the horns of the wild ox. And it's like, where did that come from? The whole thing is like, this is terrible. But then all of a sudden it just switches to past tense and it says, you rescued me.

It's like, well, where? Where was that rescue from? Where is that? And then moving on through this whole psalm, there's this conviction that I have been rescued but we don't see how. We just see that his convictions have changed now.

Now God feels very much present but we don't know how. So, I'm going to go to the how in a moment. Keep that there. But let us look at the result of what happens when you go from feeling not God present but yet you stay upon the Lord and he changes your convictions.