Thank you, Joe. Let's go back
to that portion of scripture that he read to us from Psalm
65. My subject this evening is blessed,
blessed are the chosen. Blessed are the chosen. This is addressed to the chief
musician, a psalm and a song of David. In other words, this
portion of scripture was to be sung by all of the children of
Israel because it is a psalm of praise unto the Lord. The
first part of the psalm is a praise unto the Lord for his great salvation. Salvation by grace only. The
second portion of the psalm, the latter part of the psalm,
is praise to the Lord for His providence. And so in this portion
of Holy Scripture, Psalm 65, is a psalm that gives praise
to our God for His salvation and praise to our God for His
providence. Now I have selected for my text
this evening verse 4, but I feel that it's necessary to, first
of all, at least break open to you a few thoughts about the
first three verses before we go into the fourth verse. Notice
verse one. The psalmist says, praise waiteth
for thee, O God, in Zion. And unto thee shall the vow be
performed. Praise waiteth. In the I have
center column in my Bible that once in a while definitions are
given of words, and the word waiteth here in the Hebrew, and
this is correct in saying, means silent. That is, praise is silent
for thee, O God. And Zion is the church of our
Lord Jesus. Zion are the redeemed ones. Zion are those who have been
bought with the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Zion is God's
people. Zion is the true Jerusalem. Zion is the true Israel of the
Lord. And David says, praise is silent
for thee. I'm persuaded that after studying
this a little bit, this is about the Day of Atonement, when Aaron,
as recorded in Leviticus chapter 16, on that Day of Atonement,
offered sacrifices for himself and also for the children of
Israel. It was the one day of the year that only one man went
into the tabernacle and performed duties unto God. On this day
he dressed as all the rest of the priests dressed because he
is in that sense a type of our Lord Jesus Christ. He took off
his glorious high priestly garments. He don't put on the garments
of a regular priest. Even as the one he typified,
our Lord Jesus, born of a virgin, came into this world living,
existing, biding his time as all other men do with this great
exception without sin. And in his life, he is demonstrating
that he is fit to be the redeemer, the sacrifice for all of his
people. And on the day of atonement,
our Lord Jesus, dressed in regular priestly garments, he offers
for himself the blood sacrifice that was needed for him. Of course,
the one he typified, our Lord Jesus, there was no sacrifice
offered for himself because he had no sin. He did no sin. There was no guile in his mouth. The sacrifices that Aaron offered,
however, were first of all for himself and then for the children
of Israel. As you read in Leviticus chapter
16, you'll find that he offered a bullock and a goat. Two goats were selected. One
goat was for the Lord. The second goat was the scapegoat. The goat for the Lord was sacrificed. It was offered unto God as an
offering, an offering for the sins of the people. In fact,
it was called the sin offering. That goat died. Aaron took the
blood of that goat into the Holy of Holies and he sprinkled the
mercy seed As he faced eastward, he sprinkled the mercy seat and
before the mercy seat seven times. All the while. All of Israel
waited outside in silence. In silence. Remember what the
first verse says. Praise waiteth for thee. Praise
is silent. As our Lord Jesus did business
with God, on the behalf of his people, he is typified by Aaron
doing business with God on behalf of all of Israel. Aaron represented
the children of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. That is, he represented
all of the nation of Israel. He didn't represent any other
nation. No other peoples were concerned
in this. The sacrifice, the offering was
on the behalf of a chosen people, a specific nation, that nation
God had set apart unto himself through whom he would work his
mighty work of redemption through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus
who would come from the tribe of Judah. So Aaron, on this day, he's a
picture of our Savior. He offered the blood of the goat.
All the people waited. Aaron came back out, and he took
the scapegoat. Then he laid his hands upon the
head of the scapegoat, indicating a transference of guilt. Now, no guilt was actually transferred
to the goat, because the blood of bulls and goats could never
put away sin. but it pictured, it pictured
what would happen at the cross of Calvary. When God's offering
for sin, that is the Lord Jesus Christ, when he died upon the
cross, all of the sins of all of his chosen people, of all
of the angels, of all ages was literally transferred to him
or the Bible word is imputed to him. They were charged to
his account. They were put to his account.
And he died under the wrath of God. And all for whom he died,
all the sins that he bore upon himself, he bore them away. That's typified by that scapegoat. Because Aaron, you see, after
he laid his hands on the head of the scapegoat, indicating
transference of guilt, then he looked through among the children
of Israel, and he said, brother, so and so. who was a fit man,
a man who in the estimation of Aaron was worthy for this all
important job. Brother, come up here. You take
this goat and you lead it outside the camp of Israel. We'll all
wait here in silence. See, that's one of the keys here.
He says, praise waited for thee, praise is silent. While all of
this is being done, everybody, all the children of Israel were
absolutely silent. And this fit man took that goat
with the sins having been symbolically transferred to it. That fit man
took that goat out into the wilderness, into a land uninhabited. He left the goat there. All the
people waited in silence. And then they saw the figure
of that man coming back without that goat and then praise erupted. They weren't silent anymore because
that meant that their sins were covered for a year to the next
day of atonement. Then it had to be done all over
again. But our Lord Jesus He was tempified by the goat's
blood that was shed, by the goat that died and the blood was shed.
But our Lord Jesus, he really died. His blood was sprinkled
upon the heavenly mercy seat. God was satisfied. He is the
fit man who took all the sins of all of his people, of all
of the ages, From Abel, who was the first believer who died,
unto the last one, the last of the children of God are converted
by the power of the Holy Spirit. Our Lord took all of our sins
upon himself. He endured the hell that our
sins deserved, that justice demanded. He took our sins away, He took
them into the tomb with Him, and we wait, as it were, in silence. Praise waiteth for thee, O God. And then on the Lord's day, our
Savior arose, and I'll tell you, our hearts just erupt with praise. It is indeed finished, just as
He said. Our sins have been put away.
And praise, praise is silent for thee, O God, until the work
of redemption has been finished. And now we praise Him with our
voices, we praise Him with our hearts, and we're going to praise
Him in heaven forever and ever. What is our brother James Thompson
doing now? He's not silent. He, with the
rest of the saints of God, are praising the Lord. for his great
mercy, for his great compassion, for his finished salvation. David
then says, and unto thee shall the vow be performed, the vow
of following the Lamb whithersoever he goeth, the vow of praising
him and worshiping him and honoring him and adoring him. And then he says in the second
verse, And since the atoning work has been done, he says,
all thou that hearest prayer. And the word here is it presents
the idea of discernment. The Lord knows our hearts. He
discerns our prayer. Have you not found sometimes
that when you went to pray, you just couldn't put into words
the feelings, the desires that you have in your heart. Well,
the Spirit of God, He translates those desires into words that
are presented to the Father. All thou that discerns our prayers,
He knows what's on your heart. He knows your desires. He knows
your requests. And that prayer goes up to God
through the bloody sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
it's robed in His, and perfumed by His sweet righteousness. And
thus the Father receives the prayer. O thou that hearest prayer. Aren't you glad God hears your
prayers? And He answers them according
to His good and perfect wisdom and will. Under thee shall all flesh come. That is, not every single person
who ever lives, but all those given to Christ in the covenant
of grace. We come to the Lord. We're like
that poor publican in the temple who said, God, be merciful to
me. I'm the sinner. We come to God
through our Lord Jesus Christ. And then he says in verse three,
he says, iniquities prevail against me. My iniquities are mighty. They're so mighty that they overcome
me. As for our transgressions, and
we've got an abundance of them, and our iniquities are prevalent. They're real. They're innumerable. Iniquities prevail against me. They prevail against me before
the court of God's justice, that is, God's law. God's law has
examined us and pronounced us guilty as charged. That's the
purpose of the law of God, to shut our mouths, not to teach
us how to live. Not to be the rule of life for
believers and not to be the rule by which nations are ruled. The law of God was given to us
to shut our mouths and pronounce us guilty as charged. Iniquities
prevail, they're mighty against us, and the law of God says you're
guilty. And when the spirit of grace
works within our hearts, then within our own conscience, we
say, yes, we're guilty. We're found guilty within the
court of law in our own hearts. When the spirit of God deals
with us in saving mercy, But then David says this, and
he knew something about guilt. He knew something about iniquities
prevailing against me. He says, as for our transgressions, our transgressions, what's gonna happen? What's gonna
happen? As for our transgressions, our
violations of God's law, as for our transgressions, what will
you do, Lord? Will you punish us? Will you
pour out your wrath? Will you judge us? Will you send
us to hell? As for our transgressions, David
speaks with confidence and assurance, thou shalt purge them away. Somebody's gonna come and take
care of him for us. That's our Lord Jesus Christ.
And such was the success of our Savior purging our transgressions
from all of his people, that even at the judgment, our transgressions
will not prevail against us then. You see, how can they prevail
against us at the judgment when they do not exist anymore? They've all been put away. They've
been washed away in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
did not die in vain. His sacrifice was not an attempt
to put our transgressions away. He purged them away. away from
the mind and the memory of God, away from us, for He separated
our sins and iniquities and transgressions away from us as far as the East
is from the West. He put them behind God's back,
wherever that is. And they shall never come into
existence against us ever again. Well, it seems only fitting then
that we ask this question, just briefly reviewing here, for whom
did the high priest enter into the Holy of Holies? And whose prayers are heard by
the Lord? And whose iniquities have been
purged away? whose transgressions have been
atoned for, have been removed, have been covered, have been
propitiated. And propitiation is a word that
simply means the satisfaction of divine justice. And it's the
idea of a mercy seat. The mercy seat in the Holy of
Holies, where Aaron went in to sprinkle the blood on the mercy
seat, the mercy seat covered the law that the children of
Israel had broken. Moses received two more tablets
of stone that were put in the Ark of the Covenant for safekeeping. They were covered over with the
mercy seat that had blood, the blood of sprinkling, the blood
of atonement, the blood of reconciliation sprinkled on that mercy seat.
Thank God we have a mercy seat and our mercy seat is the Lord
Jesus Christ Himself. And His precious shed blood covers
all of our sins, all of our breaking of God's laws, every imperfection
about us, the guilt of sin, the presence of sin, the existence
of sin, the actions of sin, the words of sin, the thoughts of
sin, the motives of sin. His blood has washed it all away. Oh, what a glorious redemption
is ours. But who did he do all this for?
See, that's the question. And verse four answers the question. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causes, causes to approach
unto thee that he may dwell in thy courts. We shall be satisfied
with the goodness of thy house even of thy holy temple." Here's
the chosen man. Certainly, in the context, it's
talking about a chosen people, the whole spiritual nation that
our Lord chose into salvation, the elect nation, but this is
a personal matter. He doesn't speak of us as a whole
nameless group. Because when we are confronted
with the doctrine of divine election unto salvation, the Lord did
not just say, well, I'll choose these and I'll reject these. He chose us one by one in Christ
Jesus. Could I just bring it home to
you? If you're a believer, he chose
you. Now this is an eternal choice,
no question about that. He wrote your name down in the
Lamb's Book of Life. Is there literally a Lamb's Book
of Life? It doesn't matter whether there
is or isn't, that perhaps it was just written that way to
accommodate our puny brains Because we can't begin to comprehend
or fathom the infinite greatness and the workings of the purpose
of our almighty God. But I know this, he has a people.
And these people were not chosen as a mass, as a nameless group. Blessed is the man. Blessed is
the woman. If you are a believer, The evidence
of your election unto salvation is your faith. That's the evidence. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest. This is sovereign election unto
salvation. God chose to save in eternity
past, and those whom he chose to save he has redeemed by the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And those he chose unto salvation
who were redeemed by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, he
calls by his free and sovereign effectual grace by the power
of the Holy Spirit, who quickens us, gives us ears to hear the
gospel of God's grace and brings us to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and see that he is indeed the son of God with power. And
he's the only one who can save sinners like us. And he saved
sinners like us through the doing and the dying of his darling
son. I want you to see how grace runs
all the way through this verse. Blessed is the man that thou
choosest. That is divine election. You know what election is. I've
had people say to me, I don't understand election. Yes, you
do. That's foolish to say you don't
understand election. We'll be electing a governor
come November. You know what that's all about.
You cast your vote, I'll cast my vote, everybody else in Kentucky
who votes will be casting their vote, and then somebody's gonna
win. Well, in this election of grace,
only one vote was cast because only one vote matters. That's
the vote of the Lord. I know some say God voted for
you, the devil voted against you, and now you got the deciding
vote. There's a big problem with that.
When the election was held, you weren't around. And when the
election was held, the devil wasn't around. There was only
one vote cast, the only one that matters. God determined to save
you, and he said in the eternal council chambers of his covenant
of grace, God said, You'll be mine. You are mine. I'm adopting you into my family. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest. Those he chose and redeemed he
effectually calls by his spirit. He sends the gospel to them. Then he mysteriously miraculously
waters the word with his spirit. Did you notice when Joe was reading
this, look down at verse 9. Thou visitest the earth with
his gospel and waterest it He visited you through the preaching
of the gospel and then He watered it with His grace by His Spirit. Thou greatly, He speaks of the
Lord, Thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God. Who
is the river of God? Who is the water of life? That's
Christ Himself. These chosen ones, these redeemed
ones, the Spirit of God sends to us the water of life. He gives us a thirst for Christ. He gives us a thirst for the
living God as the heart, as the deer panteth after the water
brook, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. He makes you thirsty. And the only one who can quench
your thirst is that one who is the water of life, Christ himself. Thou prepares them corn when
thou has so provided it. He gives us a hunger for the
bread of life. And we're so hungry for the bread
of life still and so thirsty for the water of life. that whenever
his servant opens the book of God to us, we love to gather
together and dine again and drink again of the refreshing water
of salvation. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest. And watch this, then he says,
and cause this to approach unto thee. What is that? Well, the
reason you have approached the Lord in faith, the reason you
have come to Christ Jesus with a hunger and with a thirst, with
a desire to know Him and be found in Him and be robed in His righteousness
and washed in His blood, the reason you come to Him is because
you've been caused to approach to Him. This refers to the irresistible,
saving, effectual grace of God the Holy Spirit. Effectual means
able to get the job done. I'm not able to cause you to
come to Christ. Some special evangelist is not
able to cause you to come to Christ. Only the Spirit of the
living God can do that and He will cause you to come. And when
He causes you to come, you'll come. And you'll make the dust
your headquarters. He will humble you. He will bring
you down. He will cause you to bow down
before Him. We read that at the judgment
every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus
is Lord to the glory of God the Father. In conversion, that's
done. In conversion, we bow the knee
to King Jesus, and we rest in Him for everlasting salvation. You see, election comes before
calling. But remember this, that calling
is the evidence of election. See, Peter said that in 2 Peter
1 and verse 10. He said, brethren, give diligence
to make your calling and election sure. If you do these things,
you won't ever fall. That's what he said. Jim, how
can I know that I'm one of the elect of God? Have you been called? That's
the only way. Called to see that Christ is
all. Called to see and know and believe
that Christ is indeed the Son of God with power. Have you been called to see and
believe there's no other Savior? Nobody else can bring you into
the presence of God. Have you been called to know
and see and believe? He's the only door into heaven,
the only door to salvation, the only way to God. Christ said,
I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the
Father but by me. Have you been caused to know
that and to approach unto him? And then he says that he may
dwell. in thy courts. You see, sinners
chosen and called by grace are caused to dwell with the Lord,
not to make a visit every once in a while, but to dwell with him in his
glorious presence. Where are the departed saints
now? They dwell in God's courts. They dwell in his presence. And they're happy forever. You're talking about a sweet
story. It's happy without end. Happiness and joy without end. We shall be satisfied with the
goodness of thy house, he then says. Satisfied. What can satisfy us in this world? I mean, really. Well, you say, well, you know,
we, various things, you might come up with different things
that bring satisfaction to you. But I would say for every child
of God, every person chosen in the election of grace, and redeemed
by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and called by the Holy
Spirit to see and believe and rest in Christ as the only Savior, we will know the fullness of
satisfaction, perfect satisfaction in the Father's house. In the
Father's house. Because until then, we're still
plagued with sin, weaknesses, troubles, difficulties. I'll tell you where we're gonna
be satisfied. Be satisfied in the goodness
of God's house. The Savior said to his troubled
disciples, let not your heart be troubled,
You believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's house,
my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, that's many
dwelling places. Plenty of room in heaven. In my father's house are many
mansions, many dwelling place. If it weren't so, I wouldn't
even told you about it. He said, I go to prepare a place
for you. Where did he go? He went to Calvary.
He went to the cross. He went to the place of suffering
and agony and death where He satisfied justice. That's where He prepared a place
for us. He's not up in heaven building
on to heaven. I heard a preacher one time say,
that Christ Jesus is the great architect, He's the great builder,
He's up in heaven building. Every time somebody's saved,
He's busy building another mansion. That's foolishness. He prepared the place for us,
and now He's preparing us for that place where He's gone. Where has He gone? To the Father's
house. Brother James, where has He gone?
Where's your uncle gone? He's in the Father's house. Our
brother, the one we laughed with, the one we enjoyed being around,
the one who sang for us so many times. Where is he? He's in the Father's house. And
he's satisfied. He's satisfied with the goodness
of God's house. Where is he? Look at the last
statement. He's in God's holy temple. where
nothing can enter in that will defile, where He is and all of
the people of God are forevermore free of everything that has to
do with sin. That's done for. No more sin. You say, what is wrong with us
today? What is wrong? You say, well,
I got aches and pains, I got troubles, some got sickness,
some got cancer, some got heart disease, some got this problem,
that problem. That can all be summed up with this, S-I-N, that's
the problem. That's the problem with the whole
earth. It's sin. But when a child of God leaves
here, he enters into the goodness of God's house. There's the only
good place there is. The Father's house. That's why
it's called the Holy Temple. And nothing that defile it shall
enter in. It's called paradise. It's what the Savior said to
the believing thief. Today thou shalt be with me in
paradise. Which means, look it up, it means
a beautiful garden. Into that first paradise, there
slithered an ungodly, malicious serpent. And he ruined paradise. He's not gonna slither into the
Father's house. No. He's not gonna defile that
holy place. That's a holy temple where everyone
speaks the glories of the Son of God who loved them and gave
himself for them. And my time's about gone, so
I'll probably continue this next Sunday night. this subject of
divine election, but this is not a subject about which we
are ashamed or hesitant to speak. If you in your heart of hearts
trust the Lord Jesus Christ, I'll take you back to the very
origin, the origin of your faith, of your confidence in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Find the origin in God's election
of you unto salvation. Ashamed of election? Speak about
it in mere generalities? Try to cloak it, try to hide
it? Let somebody be offended by it? I'll shout it from the mountaintops. By the grace of God, I am what
I am. He chose me. The Savior spoke
to His disciples and said, you didn't choose me. You come looking
for me? He said, I chose you. I went looking
every last one of you. I went along the seashore and
I called to you. Peter, you come follow me. James, follow me. John, follow
me. Went right down the list. He
looked at Matthew and said, that day when you were collecting
taxes, tribute money, I called you and you left your money behind. You left the tribute behind.
You left the tax records behind and you followed me. You didn't
choose me. I chose you. And I'm telling
you, if you believe on the Son of God, it's not a result of
your choice. And you try to lay the origin
or the real reason for your salvation upon your choice of Him, I fear
you don't even know God. Because you're not going to steal
His glory. Blessed is the man that thou
choosest. That's a sweet truth. A sweet
truth. And if it offends anybody, I
hope it doesn't offend any of you. Don't think it will. You
who are watching, I hope it doesn't offend you either. But if it
does, it'll just have to be that way. Because I'm not gonna say,
well, I'm sorry. I'm not gonna say I'm sorry for
what God's done. I'm gonna praise him for what
he's done. I'm gonna give him the glory. And I'll say, if you're
a believer, you just trace this matter of your eternal salvation
back to God's everlasting covenant of grace, where he chose you
to be an object of his saving mercy. Oh, how great his loving
kindness is. How great is his election of
grace unto salvation. Well, let's sing closing song,
what do you say? Let's sing thank you, Lord.