Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

Free Grace Media

Of Princeton, New Jersey

 

AuthorClay Curtis
TitleMy Times Are in Thy Hands
Bible TextPsalm 31:9-15
Synopsis As Christ’s times were in the LORD God’s hand, so the times of all God’s people are in the hand of God our Father and his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Date16-Nov-2017
Series Psalms 2011
Article Type Sermon Notes
PDF Format pdf
Word Format doc
Audio HI-FI Listen: My Times Are in Thy Hands (32 kbps)
Audio CD Quality Listen: My Times Are in Thy Hands (128 kbps)
Length 41 min.
 

Series: Psalms

Title: My Times are in Thy Hands

Text: Psalm 31: 9-15

Date: November 16, 2017

Place: SGBC, New Jersey

 

In Psalm 31: 5 we hear Christ speak his last words from the cross. He said to God his Father, “Into thine hand I commit my spirit.” 

 

This time we hear our Substitute’s perfect faith in verses 14 & 15, “But I trusted in thee, O LORD: I said, Thou art my God. My times are in thy hand: deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me.”

 

Subject: My Times Are in Thy Hand

 

Proposition: As Christ’s times were in the LORD God’s hand, so the times of all God’s people are in the hand of God our Father and his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

 

When believers suffer, nothing comforts us except that Friend who knows what we suffer because he has suffered what we suffer and more: that Friend who can be trusted, that Friend in whose hand we are secure at all times, that Friend of the believer is Christ Jesus.

 

What times did Christ mean when he said to the Father, “My times are in thy hand?” Now, we know that all Christ’s times were in the hand of his Father. And, believer, we know, that all our times are in Christ’s hand.

 

Ecclesiastes 3: 1: To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: 2: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; 3: A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; 4: A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; 5: A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; 6: A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; 7  A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; 8: A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

 

Believers can say as Christ did concerning all our times, “My times are in thy hand.”

 

Still, in the context of this Psalm what times, specifically, was our Substitute speaking of?  Believer, by answering this question, we will see that when we face the same times, our times are in Christ’s hand.

 

TIMES OF TROUBLE

 

Psalm 31: 9: Have mercy upon me, O LORD, for I am in trouble:…10: For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing:

 

Believer, do you experience times of trouble? Is there ever a day when a believer does not experience times of trouble?  Christ experienced times of trouble far more than we ever shall.

 

When the Son of God came down and partook of flesh and blood like unto his brethren, his life, all his years, were times of trouble—“my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing:”

 

Isaiah 53:3: 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. 4: Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

 

I am certain we do not enter into the depths of how our Savior was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief or how fully he bore our griefs and carried our sorrows all his days on this earth.  He says, “my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing.”

 

Our Savior was only 33 years old when he was crucified. But the griefs and sorrows he carried took such a toll on his flesh the Jews thought he looked nearly fifty years old.

 

John 8:57: Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?

 

Yet, in all our Redeemer’s times of trouble—all his days, all his years—all his times were in God the Father’s hands.

 

For God’s elect, all our days, all our years, in this sin-cursed earth are times of trouble.

 

Job 5: 7: man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.

 

Yet, while dead in sins, before we even knew our life was a time of trouble—all our times were in the hand of Christ and have been from eternity.  It is because before our times, in eternity when there was no time, by God’s free grace, God the Father trusted his people into Christ’s hand and predestinated us unto the adoption of children.

 

Therefore, while dead in sin, all our times we were in the hand of Christ. He protected us, kept us and guided us unto that day when he revealed himself in our hearts through  the gospel.

 

Ephesians 1: 11: In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: 12: That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.

 

Since the day he called us to faith in Christ—we have many times of trouble—but all our times of trouble are in Christ’s hand. Believer, in every time of trouble, trust Christ, crying, “My times are thy hand.”

 

TIMES OF WEAKNESS

 

Psalm 31: 9:…mine eye is consumed with grief, yea, my soul and my belly. 10:…my strength faileth because of mine iniquity, and my bones are consumed.

 

Believer, do you ever experience weakness in your flesh due to your sin?  While serving as our Substitute, Christ, who knew no sin, experienced the weakness of our flesh when he was touched with the feeling of our infirmities.

 

We are reminded of our Substitutes time in the garden of Gethsemane and to the end of the cross when we hear Christ say, “Mine eye is consumed with grief, yea, my soul and my belly.”  We see our Savior’s humanity. He took flesh like unto his brethren. We see it in that his flesh became consumed in grief. His eye represents all his faculties in the flesh. His soul represents his life as Man. His belly represents his reins, his inner most being, his strength in the flesh. This was the time when our Substitute experienced the weakness of our flesh.

 

This was a time when Christ experienced being “touched with the feeling of our infirmities.” (Heb 4: 15)  He was touch with the feelings of infirmities which our sin causes in the flesh. He said, “My strength faileth because of mine iniquity, and my bones are consumed.”

 

Notice, Christ says, “mine iniquity.”  God is so just that before God would pour out justice on Christ, the LORD laid on him the iniquity of us all—all his people. (Is 53: 6) Our iniquity was made to be Christ’s and Christ owned it to be his—“mine iniquity.” This was necessary before God would pour out justice on Christ because God is just and Christ came to manifest God’s righteousness.  This was necessary for the last Adam to justify his people from the sin that the first Adam plunged us into. And it is finished!

 

Believer, when you feel the weight of your sin, remember—when Christ owned our sin to be his sin—the time of our justification was in Christ’s hand and he accomplished it for his people!

 

Also, when the LORD laid on him the iniquity of us all, though Christ knew no sin himself, it was a time when Christ experienced being touched with feeling of our infirmities which our sin causes. And being touched, he experienced the weakness of our flesh. He said, “My strength faileth because of mine iniquity; my bones are consumed.”

 

In the garden of Gethsemane, he was so grieved in the flesh, at being made sin for his people and at being forsaken of the Father in justice, that in his flesh he sweat as it were great drops of blood.  His strength began to fail and his bones began to be consumed. But whose hand did he trust?  He fell on his face and prayed saying,

 

Matthew 26:39:…O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.

 

What was he saying? He was saying what the same thing he says in our Psalm in verse 14, “But I trusted in thee, O LORD: I said, Thou art my God. My times are in thy hand.”  So believer in all our times weakness due to sin, cast all your care on Christ, crying, “My times are in thy hand.”

 

TIMES OF REPORACH

 

Psalm 31: 11: I was a reproach among all mine enemies, but especially among my neighbours, and a fear to mine acquaintance: they that did see me without fled from me. 12: I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind: I am like a broken vessel. 13: For I have heard the slander of many: fear was on every side: while they took counsel together against me, they devised to take away my life.

 

Believer, have you ever suffered reproach from those around you for the cause of Christ?  Our Redeemer suffered times of reproach throughout his life. But even more so when the time came for him to lay down his life the room and stead of his people.

 

He said, “I was a reproach among all mine enemies.” Christ knows what it is when you who are his are reproached by your enemies for his sake.  But even worse, Christ know what it is to be reproached by friends, “but especially among my neighbours, and a fear to mine acquaintance: they that did see me without fled from me.”

 

Nothing hurts worse than a friend betraying you or a loved one denying you. Have you experience such a time as that, believer? Thy times are in Christ’s hand. He experienced it more.

 

Judas Iscariothis own friend betrayed him.

 

Psalm 55: 12: For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it: neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him: 13: But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance. 14: We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company.

 

The apostle Peter, his own beloved apostle, denied him three times and fled from him.

 

Have you ever suffered times of being forgotten? Christ said, “I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind: I am like a broken vessel. For I have heard the slander of many: fear was on every side: while they took counsel together against me, they devised to take away my life.”

 

Brethren, when you experience times of reproach, flee to Christ as Christ did to the Father, crying, “But I trusted in thee, O LORD: I said, Thou art my God. My times are in thy hand: deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me.”

 

So believer all our times are in Christ’s hand. Our times of justification were in his hands when he suffered in our place in perfect faith trusting the Father and justified us from all our sins and brought in a perfect righteousness for us. So the times of our justification and reconciliation are in his hands.

 

Hebrews 2:  17: Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.

 

Also, our times are in his hands now when we suffer. Remember, in the garden of Gethsemane, having experienced the weakness of our flesh, when he came and found his apostles asleep, Christ understood the weakness of our flesh. So he had compassion on them, saying “The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.”  When we are weak he knows, our times are in his hands.

 

Hebrews 2: 18: For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.

 

Hebrews 4: 14: Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. 15: For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. 16: Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in TIME of need.

 

Our times are in Christ’s hand!

 

Amen!