[0:00] Now together in the worship of God, we're going to sing to his praise from Psalm 40, Psalm 40 and at verse 6.
[0:14] No sacrifice nor offering didst thou at all desire. Mine ears though bold, sin offering thou, and burnt didst not require.
[0:25] Then to the Lord these were my words, I come, behold, and see. Within the volume of the book it written is of me. To do thy will I take delight, O thou my God that art.
[0:40] Yea, that most holy law of thine I have within my heart. Within the congregation great I righteousness did preach. Lo thou dost know, O Lord, that I refrain not my speech.
[0:55] I never did within my heart conceal thy righteousness. I thy salvation have declared and shown thy faithfulness. Thy kindness which most loving is concealed have not I, nor from the congregation great have hid thy verity.
[1:15] We're going to sing these verses from verse 6 to the double verse, Mark 10. No sacrifice nor offering didst thou at all desire. No sacrifice nor offering didst thou at all desire.
[1:29] No sacrifice nor offering didst thou at all desire. In Jesus' names, how Έtoeus sa bank, slonking yor.
[1:48] Amen, O Lord, your Lord, my God will all desire. In Jesus' names, howён you sl lige. In Jesus' names, how ye 된 that I shall weveth.
[2:01] Then do not hardly share my heart, I shall be born and see.
[2:16] Within the light of my heart, I will give it the heaviness of me.
[2:33] To do thy will, thy safety, and I know thou my heart alive.
[2:50] May that was all in all thy power, I have within my heart.
[3:07] Within the congregation came thy righteous master in grace.
[3:25] Lord, I would just know the Lord that I have lived with not my sin.
[3:41] I never did within my heart, until thy righteousness.
[3:58] I love you, salvation of the eternal show, my will again.
[4:14] Thy kindness, faithful, slain, is the heart of the night.
[4:34] Our heart alone, he leads to me, now they shall die.
[4:46] Let us come before God in prayer. Let us pray.
[4:57] Gracious and ever-blessed God, we give thanks that thou art God indeed, and there is no God like unto you.
[5:12] You are the God who is worthy to receive the prayers and the petitions of your people, wherever they are. And your servant, the psalmist, reflects often on the people of God gathered together to worship.
[5:32] And gathered in your name to lift up their voices in singing your praises. And gathered together to bow the knee before you.
[5:46] And to heed the prayers that they direct heavenwards. Seeking your blessing and seeking your help in time of need.
[5:59] Psalmist in one of the psalm says, Here Israel's shepherd, Like a flock thou that hast Joseph guide, shine forth.
[6:13] O thou that hast between the cherubims abide. A vision of your holiness, a vision of heaven itself. And the fact that the prayers of those who consider themselves to be destitute, are directed towards one who is all-glorious.
[6:36] We pray then that we would have some grasp of your elevated position. Different to anything and everything.
[6:50] We are creatures when you are creator. We are sinful or you are holy, without sin. You are light when we are darkness.
[7:01] You are eternal when we are creatures of the dust. You are merciful when we are so stony-hearted.
[7:13] And resistance is often presented to the needy who are before us. We give thanks that you are a God of compassion and grace.
[7:28] And because of that we can venture into your presence. We pray that you would remind us, even through your word today, that we have that assurance that when we come, that you will not obliterate us.
[7:45] Lord, dismiss you from your presence for eternity. Because we come not on the basis of our own well-being, our own strength, our own goodness, our own doings, but on the basis of another.
[8:02] One who has fulfilled all righteousness on behalf of his people. Even a gracious saviour. We plead the merits of his fulfilled work.
[8:14] That which he has completed and that you have acknowledged to be something in which you are pleased. We pray that you would bring before us, even in your word, a reminder of that.
[8:29] That would stir us up to praise your name even more wholeheartedly. Remember your people this day. Some meet together.
[8:41] Some are alone. But we are all one in Christ Jesus. If we are indigenous people, that is what is true of us. It does not matter where we are in the world.
[8:53] We may be of a different race. We may have come from different backgrounds and known history of different pace developments.
[9:09] We may have different skin colors. But those who are used are covered in the blood of Jesus Christ.
[9:21] Our sins have been blotted out. And you have received them to yourself. And there is nothing that separates them.
[9:35] They are united. as your servant of old. So laid upon us in the word. we pray that you would remind us even today that we can come and bring not only our own burdens but the burdens of your people begin with the burdens of those that we know within our homes and families we pray that you would remember those who know you and enable them to grow in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ we pray for those who are yet to know you that you would show mercy towards them and bring them to your foodstool and enable them by grace to embrace the salvation that Christ has to offer to all manner of sinner we pray for our friends, our neighbours those who are working with us in the community and those that we work alongside those that we know, many that we don't we pray that you would bless our island and those who work within our island for the good of its residents especially at this time of global pandemic we are still experiencing the aftermath of it we believe that it may be an aftermath and we pray that that is what is true that we are emerging out of the other side of it albeit in a slow paced way if it is progress we give thanks to you that such progress is possible we bring you the cares and concerns of those affected to you remembering those in hospital those who have been taken from hospital and recovering in their homes we pray for these hospitals and those who work in them care homes and those who work there we pray for the community and those who work within the community we remember all who have a role to play for the well-being of their fellow citizens in whatever capacity they are called to serve may they serve diligently we have a view to your glory and those who have such a view we are assured that they will do things that others may not be able to so bless us together as a people, as a nation remember those who govern remember those who rule over us on behalf of our Queen we give thanks for the Queen we pray that you would enable her faith to grow and that if there are evidences of that faith that they may be magnified and the members of her family may follow her example of service service and we pray forgiveness for the sins of the High and the Mighty just as surely as we pray for forgiveness for those who are down in the gutter we pray that you would sanctify every visitation in providence to us that you would cleanse us from sin whatever that sin may be we may look at the sins of others and think they are gross and yet your own may equally may be equally heinous in your eyes we give thanks that whatever whatever sin it is that it is possible to bring it confess it and repent of it and flee from it to Christ may that be so so bless the word that is preached today
[13:36] wherever it is proclaimed by whatever means and whoever has your word and who proclaims it with a view to your glory may it be blessed may a seed sown yield fruit and may the glory be yours remember the grieving and the sorrowful remember those who are hospitalised and those that we know may they be be aware of your blessing that they are being prayed for and that your people have a burden that others may know nothing of even they themselves being a burden to others while they are oblivious of that fact go before us now cleansing from sin directing us to Christ pardoning every transgression in his name Amen We are going to hear some words from the New Testament scriptures from the epistle to the Hebrews chapter 10
[14:37] We are going to read from the beginning down to verse 18 For the law having a shadow of good things to come and not the very image of the things can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect for then would they not have ceased to be offered because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins but in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins wherefore when he cometh into the world he saith sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not but a body hast thou prepared prepared me in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure then said
[15:43] I lo I come in the volume of the book it is written of me to do thy will O God above when he said sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not neither hadst pleasure therein which are offered by the law then said he lo I come to do thy will O God he taketh away the first that he may establish the second by the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all and every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can never take away sins but this man after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever sat down on the right hand of God from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his food stone for by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified whereof the
[16:48] Holy Ghost also is a witness to us for after that he had said before this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days saith the Lord I will put my laws into their hearts and in their minds will I write them and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more now where remission of these sins is there is where remission of these is there is no more offering for sin and so on may the Lord at his blessing to this reading of his word and to his name be the praise can I direct your attention to words we have in the psalm that is quoted here psalm 40 we can read these words in the book of psalms sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire mine ears hast thou opened burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required then said I lo I come in the volume of the book it is written of me
[17:59] I delight to do thy will O my God yea thy law is within my heart and so on yea thy law is within my heart I'm sure many of you are familiar with the words of the psalmist it is a psalm of David and it is considered at least in part a psalm that is messianic that is it speaks very much of the passion of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Messiah there are truths contained within it that surely can only speak of the passion of Jesus and it creates a sense in the heart of the believer that encourages them to understand that
[19:10] God's word is the word of one who knows the end from the beginning and the beginning from the end sometimes we read a word that is prophetic and when it is married against or married to the fulfilment of that prophecy you cannot but see the perfection of it well we're looking at the words of the psalmist here and we want to try and understand how fulfilment is found in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ if we read verse six again the psalmist is speaking about the offering of sacrifice sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire mine ears hast thou opened bond offering and sin offering hast thou not required at first sight the words appear to contradict a basic teaching of the scripture because
[20:37] God we know is someone who is responsible for ordering the ceremonial law it is God who gave it and all the detail of it is set out for us in the scripture all the ceremonial laws in great detail direct worshipper in their worship what they are to come with and when they are to come and what is expected of them when they come when the psalmist is speaking here he's speaking of sacrifice offering burnt offering and sin offering one involves animal sacrifice one involves a meat offering a meal offering which is really corn oil whatever the name itself is slightly confusing some of the sacrifices are offered for specific offences according to the law they were required and it is not just that when
[21:56] Messiah came that that would be forgotten what typified or what they typified has been fulfilled when Christ fulfilled all righteousness on the cross the psalmist is conscious of the fact that the day will come that what Christ has done or would be doing would be the day when all that was typically involved in the sacrifice in these offerings would be brought to a complete conclusion in the words mine ears thou bored or digged there's a difference between what we have in the quotation as it is in
[23:07] Hebrews 10 a body thou hast prepared for me there is much that can be said about that statement simply the ear is the organ of hearing and usually to hear is to obey the word of God it indicates also a willingness to serve relating back to the provision made within the law that allowed a servant to remain with his master instead of being freed there is the willingness to serve willingness to remain within that service because the servant delights in serving that master it's not a service that's a service that's unwillingly offered book of exodus for example if the servant shall plainly say
[24:14] I love my master my wife and my children I will not go out free and if the servant shall plainly say I love my master then his master shall bring him into the churches and he shall also bring him to the door or into the door post and his master shall bore his ear through with an oil and he shall serve him forever there's that willingness in the symbolism to continue in that service what is being stressed here is that Christ's sacrifice is a willing sacrifice it is a sacrifice that was willingly given he was not compelled compelled by anything outside of himself to fulfil the role that he occupied John Owen the Puritan writes the son was an agent in this great work willingly undertaking the office imposed upon him and if we read again the words of
[25:29] Hebrews 10 he might have been cruciated on the part of God but his death could not have been an oblation and offering had not his will concurred the death of Christ on the cross was a death which was sacrificial but it was not the death of a martyr it was the death of someone who was willingly doing what his father had given him to do the most obvious thing is that the sacrifice required the offerer to have a body that could be offered otherwise there would be no efficacy in John chapter 17
[26:34] Jesus speaks of what awaits him on the cross just as surely as as if he was experiencing it at that very moment he was able to speak of it as something that he was in the world to do and he was in the world even though he shrank back from the awfulness of the cross at one point as he anticipates it he anticipates it as something that God the father gave to do I have manifested thy name and to the men which thou gavest me out of the world thine they were and thou gavest them me and they have kept thy word they are his and God has given them to him and for that reason he is willing to go to the cross conference in the psalm the delight that he has in obeying to do thy will
[27:41] I take delight then he said I come in the volume of the book it is written of me the writer Archibald Alexander states because this is so because these sacrifices are ineffective and worthless I bring myself again Ralph Erskine it expresses solemn joy when the purposes of heaven is come to the birth and the decree breaks forth and the fullness of time is come to make heaven and earth witness his solemn march on the errant to do thy will there is much time spent attempting to unravel what God in his wisdom has not seen fit to disclose to us while at the same time ignoring the wonder of that which is his will for the salvation of sinners that which he has disclosed for our benefit through his word
[28:51] I was reading recently Calvin's insistence that the believer should delight in what God has chosen to reveal and be just as delighted and reconciled to that which he has kept hidden and left mysterious Christ equates the book with God's will some say it is God's book of life or God's eternal decrees it means anyway God's words prophetically spoken and carved in tablets of stone in his law and that again is confirmed by the words of the following verse verse 8. I delight to do thy will, O my God. Yea, thy law is written within my heart.
[29:58] This is my meat and drink, to do the will of the one that sent me. He gave me a work to do, and it is my pleasure, my delight to fulfil it, to complete it.
[30:11] One of the writers reminds us that the death of Christ is spoken of as a baptism, a cup that he must drink, a ransom price he must pay.
[30:26] And this is how he is portrayed in the world, and this is how he sees himself. Both his life and his death was according to the word of God.
[30:37] The more you look at God's word, and you find Christ in it, you find how it magnifies who he is and what he came to fulfil.
[30:54] The preacher and writer A.W. Pink speaking on the words, his court was without seem. When it describes the soldiers casting lots over him.
[31:12] See who would possess this trophy. And yet what it represented was considered of little worth by them.
[31:24] The righteousness he wrote for his church was a unit. Beginning at Bethlehem's is pink, consummated at Calvary.
[31:35] He was under the law, and yet he honoured the law. He died as one who was in breach of it.
[31:47] He died as one who was a debtor to God. Destined to suffer because he had broken it.
[32:04] These psalms of the Messiah are psalms that remind us of the kind of Messiah we have. The Prince of Peace.
[32:17] The one who came and who fulfilled all that the law revealed concerning him.
[32:32] This one who is today sitting at the right hand of God. One who is joining with the angels of heaven in the singing of praises that have him as their focus.
[32:52] How often do we sing these psalms of praise? And yet we do not have him of whom it speaks before our eyes as we should.
[33:03] Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire. Mine ears thou bored. Mine ears you have opened.
[33:18] Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required. How wonderful God's word. How wonderful God's word is. That we can have it upon our lips even as we sing the praises of God.
[33:33] As we can sing of what Christ has done. May God in his mercy allow us to see more of him and more of his Son and more of his glory in what he has accomplished on our behalf.
[33:57] Let us pray. Lord God in heaven, open the eyes of our understanding. That we may see this Christ and marvel at his beauty.
[34:10] That we may be persuaded of the need that we have to follow him by way of example. That we may too say to do your will.
[34:24] It is our delight because you are our God. We pray your blessing on your word today. May it go out with power. May it bring us to our knees.
[34:36] May we rejoice in your name and delight in your salvation. Cleanse from sin. Pardon every transgression through Christ the Lord.
[34:46] Now may grace, mercy and peace from God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit be with us all in Jesus name. Amen.