We're in Kentucky, where they have all the big horse
races. And they have the one that wins,
and they have the one that places, and they have the one that shows,
and then they give you the also rounds. And we're down to the
also rounds. But I want you to turn with me
in your Bibles this morning to Psalm 92. Psalm 92. I want to thank this congregation
for their great treatment of preachers. A guy could get used to this. Good accommodations and food. They work so hard. I love this
church. I want you to look, beginning
with me in Psalm 92, beginning in verse 12. The righteous shall flourish
like the palm tree. He shall grow like a cedar in
Lebanon. Those that be planted in the
house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bring forth
fruit in old age. They shall be fat and flourishing. To show that the Lord is upright,
he is my rock. and there is no unrighteousness
in him. I will call this this morning a
palm tree in the desert. In the last few days I received
an email from a young man in our congregation who is in Iraq
for his third time. His name is Lee Meyer. His dad
is with us this week. He's a captain in the Marine
Corps, and he flies a Cobra jet helicopter. And while I ought to be sending
messages and e-mails to him to be a blessing to him, I get an
email from him that's a blessing to me. And when I read a part of this
email, it brought this text to my mind. I want to read you part of it. He wrote, I was flying back from
Baghdad the other day, and it was very hot. midday and bright. And my co-pilot remarked about
a tree he saw standing in the middle of the vast desert. He said, man, that tree just
said, I don't care what anybody says, I'm growing here. I thought about how there was
no rhyme or reason for that tree to be there. It was impossible not to look
at this green tree all by itself. And it made me think that no matter what the circumstances,
Christ will sustain his sheep and they will flourish despite
the odds or otherwise. And who knows, maybe that tree
grew there years ago, just so I could see it when I did. Here in our text, the blessed
Spirit of God speaks of a tree and also of grass in contrasting
God's elect in Christ to the wicked. There is a difference between
them. And it is God in grace who makes
them to differ. And it was God's grace by that
grace that this young man saw something different than what
his co-pilot saw. And it always amazes me how that
the Lord, in his condescending mercy, uses these natural things
to remind us of and to illustrate for us spiritual things. Note the contrast between the
wicked in verse 7. When the wicked spring up as
grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish, it is
that they shall be destroyed forever. That's exactly what the Apostle
Peter says. He says, For all flesh is as
grass, and the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass
withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away. The grass is blown down by the
heat of God. But if you notice here also in
this text, it says that the righteous flourish as a tree. Look back in verse 12. The righteous
shall flourish like the palm tree, he shall grow like a cedar
in Lebanon." That's the same language that we hear the bridegroom
speaking concerning the bride. How fair and how pleasant art
thou, O love, for delights, this thy stature. is like a palm tree. I was a bit tempted to take all
of the natural things concerning a palm tree and maybe run off
telling you things about the palm tree. It's the date palm
that's spoken of, has such sweet fruit, provides such great shade
endures in the harshest conditions and so forth. But I thought it
best to say what God says about it. And there are three things
briefly this morning that I want us to look at concerning what
God says about His elect in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the first
one is this. And that is what he calls them, the righteous. The righteous shall flourish
like the palm tree. As a matter of fact, in another
place they are called trees of righteousness. And it is amazing when you stop
and think about it, if you know something about what God says
elsewhere in the scripture, how is it that any can be called
the righteous when Paul says in Romans 10 that there are none
righteous? No, not one. And not only that, How can any
be referred to as righteous when at this time the Lord Jesus Christ
had not even come and died? Is that right? Sometimes it helps us if we go
back and apply that law or rule of first mention concerning a
word or a doctrine in scripture. And if we do that in this case,
the first time that we find the word righteous in the scripture
is in Genesis chapter 7, when God refers to Noah. Can I read it to you? And the
Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark,
for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation." Now, I know that Noah is a type
of the Lord Jesus Christ, because God is saying to Noah that all
that will be given to his household is because of something that
God has seen in him. He's a type of the Lord Jesus
Christ. But not only that, when we stop
and think about Noah individually and personally, how was it that
God could look at this man who was a sinner, just like every
one of those who perished in that flood, and say of him that
he was righteous? Let me read it to you again.
And the Lord said unto Noah, Thee have I seen righteous before
me in this generation. And I would say to you, is this
not exactly what justification is in the Bible? Is it not to be declared righteous
or seen righteous before God in Jesus Christ the righteous? Absolutely. I don't know if you ever noticed
in scripture, I've already noticed it in several of the passages
that have been read and preached from in these meetings, but did
you ever notice how one minute in a passage it seems to be referring
to the Messiah or to the Christ in the singular, and the very
next statement is given to us in the plural of his people? Look back in verses 12 and 13. The righteous shall flourish
like the palm tree, he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon,
and those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish
in the courts of our God. And when I used to read that,
I'd have a great conflict trying to figure out who it was that
God the Spirit is talking about in the scripture. And it finally
was taught by God to see that he is talking about one and the
same, Christ and that people that are in him. He, those, are one and the same. one and the same. So that as
long as we have been in Christ, we have been the righteous in
his sight, having been made the righteousness of God in him,
and thus a people called by God himself the righteous. And you know the amazing thing
is, the next time we find in the Bible God the Spirit using
the word righteous, it is when Abraham is interceding with God on the behalf of those
in Sodom, most especially his nephew Lot, and this is what
he says, And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy
the righteous with the wicked? If they are fifty, no. If they are forty, As a matter of fact, God in that
judgment destroyed everyone but the righteous. But do you know
who he gives as an example of that? Lot. I remember one time long before
I had any understanding of what this is all about, I was using
or reading that text wherein Peter makes a reference to this
man. And a woman came to me afterwards
and she said, I don't care what you say, knowing what I know
about Lot, having read what I read about Lot, there is no way that
I can see that he is righteous. I wish that woman weren't dead
now. Because I'd love to go and say
to her, the reason why you can't see Lot righteous is because
you don't see Lot the way God sees Lot. He sees him in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And so Peter says, and God delivered
just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked, for
that righteous man. Not a stellar example of a father,
was he? Not a real super-spiritual Christian,
was he? No, but he is righteous. For that righteous man dwelling
among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul." He didn't have one of those kinds
of righteousness that men talk about nowadays, that you wear
something like a pharisaical garment. No, he vexed his righteous
soul from day to day. with their unlawful deeds. He
was righteous because of being united to the Lord Jesus Christ. And because he is the righteous
one, and we as branches of him who is that tree of righteousness,
everyone in him not only is but has been the righteous. You know, the more I say that,
the better that feels on my tongue. The righteous. The more I hear
him talk about law, unfaithful law, being righteous, the more
my soul wants to run out and find out, how can that be? And
not only that, before anything ever takes place in this world,
before anything ever happens in this world, as a matter of
fact, before this world ever was created, here is a people
that God in all eternity called the righteous. That's what he calls them. Unlike
him, I've been called a lot of things. And I was called a lot of things
long before I ever knew the gospel and believed the truth. But only
before I'd been called a lot of things. When the Lord revealed
the truth to me in Christ, I really got called a lot of things then. But before ever anybody called
me anything. Before anybody ever called me
by name in this world, God, in a covenant, in His dear Son,
called me the righteous. That's who they are. The righteous
are like a palm tree. And I can read that, and I can
know he's talking about the Lord Jesus Christ And at the same
time, know assuredly by his grace that he's talking about everyone
in Christ. You can't separate them. They
were in a standing. They were in a position. They
were in a family. They were in a relationship before
ever the world was. I'll tell you something that's
delightful to think about. says this, according to Paul,
David describes the blessedness unto whom God imputes righteousness
without works. That could take place before
I came along, couldn't it? If it's a righteousness without
works. Listen to this one. He goes on
just a few words later. He says, Bless is the man unto
whom the Lord will not impute sin. When did God in his purpose and
counsel determine not to impute my sin to me? Because when he determined not
to impute my sin to me, the only way he could do that was to impute
it to my surety and my substitute. And as Brother Maurice said,
when it left me, it became his. And what he was became mine. And we became the righteous.
As a matter of fact. You see, this takes place before
the world ever begins, and it involves God doing all things
in blessing his people with a view toward Christ's coming and his
obedience unto death and his bringing in everlasting righteousness
and his suffering the unjust for the unjust, those who were
unjust in themselves, but in him they have always been
the righteous. Those who were in their own minds enemies toward
God, but they have always been the
children of God. Do you ever stop and think about what words
like redeem mean? Reconciliation? You don't have words like that
unless there's a prior relationship. He redeemed his people, but they
were already his people. Christ came into this world and
he fulfilled every jot and tittle of that law and brought in that
sacrifice unto death, the death of the cross, and ratified that
covenant. But whatever we were in that
covenant, we were from old eternity. You know what that means? I can't mess it up. Not only that, that means I don't
get any glory from it. That means it's going to stand
for all eternity. Because if I were the righteous
then, I'm the righteous now, and I'll be the righteous for
worlds without end. because of what he is. You see, the truth of the matter
is, we were in what the old theologians, or I will say that, what the
old grace preachers, we were in what they used to
call a grace union in Christ before we were in the fall union
with Adam. Maurice, unless I miss this a
lot, we were saints of God before we were ever sinners. Amen. Is that right? That's right.
In Christ. We were the sons of God before
we ever sinned against God. Is that too much for you? Too
much to grasp. It's my only hope. That's right. He loved me, and
he gave himself for me. He loved me, and he loved me
in the only way that he could love me, as Brother Maurice just
said, with that love which is only in Christ Jesus. He says they're the righteous. They're the righteous. They were sons before they were
sinners. They were saints before they
were sinners. They were in before they were
out. They were up before they fell. And everything that God
in grace does, He does because of what they are already in Christ. And this is simply the revelation
of it, the manifestation of it, the fruition of it. Call it what
you want to, But they possessed it all in
him. The writer of Proverbs speaks
of him whose wisdom, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he himself
describes his position with the Father, and at that time he says
that his delights were hidden with these sons of men. I don't explain near as much
as I used to. But by his grace, brother, I
want to believe it. If I can explain it, if I can
define everything, if I can put everything in your little box,
in my little box and all, if it can be defined and described
and categorized by me, there's nothing to it. He said they're the righteous. Let me read you this verse. It's
in Isaiah 3, verse 10. I love this verse. Because the command goes out,
and it's good in every generation. Verse 10. Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him." Now, that next part is a little
bit tricky, isn't it? Say ye to the righteous that
it shall be well with him, for they shall eat of the fruit of
their doings. Oh, no, we're in trouble. No,
we're not. Because in union with the Lord
Jesus Christ, being one with him, his doings or our doings. And they're the righteous. That's what he calls them. That's
what he calls his son, and that's what he calls all in his son.
That's what he's always called them, that's what they've always
been, that's what they'll always be, made the righteousness of
God in him, the righteous. Here is the second thing he says
about them. He says they are planted. Verse 13, those that be planted
in the house of the Lord. Actually, that word has something
to do with something like transplanting. Turn over to Isaiah chapter 61.
This is the very passage that our Lord read from and said was
fulfilled when he stood there in the synagogue of Nazareth
and his own people, according to the flesh, turned on him and
would have slain him that very moment. Look down in verse 3. He says, "...to appoint them
that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beautiful rest." To him
to do all these things. That's why the Spirit of the
Lord is upon him. That's why he's come. That's
why he stood as the surety, the oil of joy for mourning, the
garment of praise for the Spirit of heaviness, that they might
be called trees of righteousness The planting of the Lord. The righteous are not volunteers. I can remember those old farmers
back home when I was growing up as a boy, and they'd have
a crop one year, and they'd go to rotate the crop and put another
crop in the next year. They'd have corn one year, they'd
have soybeans the next year. And when the crop, the corn would
be over and they'd go back to put the soybeans in, they'd plant
them, and you'd look up here and there and all over the field
of soybeans, there'd be a stalk of corn growing up. Somebody'd say, well, how'd that
get there? They said, volunteers, not these. They're the planting of the Lord. As a matter of fact, When they
came, the disciples came back to the Lord Jesus Christ, if
you remember, and they sowed so much like so many I see in
our day. They said, well, don't you realize
that the Pharisees and the scribes, they were offended at what you
said. I don't want to offend anybody.
But if you get offended at what he says, You're just going to
be offended. He said, don't you know, Lord,
that the Pharisees are offended by what you say? This is what
he said. They said, knowest thou not that
the Pharisees were offended after they heard this saying? But he
answered and said, every plant which my heavenly Father hath
not planted, shall be rooted up." There's not going to be anything
in God's garden except that which He plans. And here's the reason for it.
If you look back in Isaiah 61 and verse 3, that they might
be called trees of righteousness, the planning of the Lord. Why? That He might be glorified. I've walked out that door after
every service and walked down those steps and I've been amazed
at those beautiful flowers that are around that step. I'm utterly amazed that anything
would be like that just because it happened. It must be different
here than it is in our part of the world. I can't imagine that
such a beautiful array of flowers laid out so well that they would
just happen. They didn't, did they? Somebody
planted them. Somebody planted them, and they're
in this design. This is speaking of purpose.
This is speaking of intention. This is talking about distinction. These are the planting of the
Lord. He put them in this field. And this has to do with God's
purpose of grace, which he purposed in Christ before the world began. He put them in his garden. Old Gil said, Here is a tree
planted, not one that grows of itself, not a wild tree, not
a tree of the wood, but one that is removed from its native place
and soil and planted elsewhere by design. All God's people, whether we
call them His elect, His children, His sheep, whatever it is, whatever
they are called, wherever they are, they are the planting of the
Lord. Thy people also shall be all
righteous, they shall inherit the land forever, the branch
of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified. Who gets the glory out of the
gardener? The gardener. Who gets the glory out of the
vineyard? The husband. And they are the
planting of the Lord. And he sovereignly, according
to his own will and purpose, for a reason known only to himself
and for reasons only in himself, is scattered abroad. And they appear random to us.
One here, one there. But one day in eternity, they
will reflect a divine design, a divine choice, a divine purpose
that will ring for all eternity to the glory and praise of His
grace. Let me read Psalm 1 to you. I
know you know this one. Blessed is the man that walketh
not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners,
nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is
in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day
and night, and he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers
of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season, his
leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper."
Now, I know what we do. I've done it. These other preachers
have done it. We've done our best to make sure
that men and women know that the one that's spoken of here
in and of ourselves, that can't be any of us. We want folks to
know that's Christ. Is that right? But it's us if we're in Christ. You see, the Bible says that
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. But it also says As he is, so are we in this world. As he is was, as he is is, as
he is will be, we is. That's just the way it is. Plant it. That's wonderful, the planting
of the Lord, the garden of the Lord, the vineyard of the Lord. Then here's the third thing.
Look at what it says about them. They're the righteous. They're
the planting of the Lord. It says they'll flourish. When I got to looking at this, This is amazing. They'll flourish. That's what
it says. The righteous, this planting of the law, they're
going to flourish. It says that the wicked flourish,
but it shows us there that the kind of flourishing that the
wicked do is short-lived. They flourish with material things
for a brief time. They flourish with good health
for a time. They flourish with family and
friends and prosperity. They'll flourish. But then shortly,
it's to be cut down. But the righteous, they'll flourish
forever. That word, flourish, here, means
something like this, to break forth as a bud, to bloom as a
flower, to spread out, to blossom, to break forth, to grow, to spread,
to spring up. Everything I've ever planted
is like putting the kiss of death on it. Whether it comes from Lowe's
Garden Center or whether it comes from the finest nursery down
the road, if these hands go on it, it's like the kiss of death. My wife can take the same stuff,
bought from the same place. She's got that legendary green
thumb and if she plants it, it'll flourish. Let me tell you this, if God
plants it, it will flourish. You see, this has to do in one
sense with those people in Christ, loved of Christ and redeemed
by Christ, being made manifest and being given spiritual life
and brought to Christ in faith, confessing Christ. They are budding
out and have since he came. But it has to do with them individually,
too. They'll flourish. You see, in Psalm 104, I'll just
read this to you, it says, The trees of the Lord are full of
sap. They're not saps, they're full
of sap. What is sap to a tree? It's life. the trees of the Lord. It doesn't matter what they appear
to be on the outside. It doesn't matter what anybody
thinks they are. They're full of sand. They're
full of life. Why? Because they've been engrafted
into the branch of life himself. To the tree of life himself. They've been planted by the life
giver. They have the root of Christ
in them. They're going to flourish. They'll
flourish with the fruits of grace. They won't have just leaves.
They'll have fruit. You know them by their fruit,
part of which is their doctrine, which glorifies God and humbles
man. and they'll do so in the courts
of the Lord. That's where they bloom. You see Lee's observation of
the tree and Christ's people is accurate. Christ will sustain
his sheep, he said, and they will flourish despite the odds
and otherwise. You know what that made me know?
Here is that boy in that awful situation, and I can tell by
what the Lord showed him and revealed to him, he's flourishing. It's amazing. You see, these trees of the Lord,
they are watered by living water that flows unseen by the Spirit
of God in their hearts. You know what the psalmist said? the streams thereof that make
glad the city of God. Here is old Zion sitting on that
hill. Nobody can see a river running
through it or a stream or a trickle or a waterfall or anything, but
right in the midst of her is the eternal fountain that flows
out of Christ the living water. They will flourish, though still
in this flesh. Isn't that amazing? They'll flourish
though even in this desert place of the world. They'll flourish
in the midst of our day's drought of preaching the gospel of Christ. They'll flourish though all is
death around them. They'll flourish in all their
circumstances and trials, God being the one who sends them
for their good and his glory. I can look at this group, a whole
lot of you I've known for 25 years now. And I can look at your faces
and I can remember some difficulty, some trial, some affliction,
some family problem, some church situation, something of this
and that and the other. And I can see how you flourished
in it. Just like what Brother Jack was
talking about. Even in that heart-wrenching circumstance. The Lord's people
flourish. See, he was able to stand up
here, known that it's of God and for his glory. He flourished
then. Still flourishes. They flourish
in all their trials and tribulations. They flourish even in the midst
of controversy and unfaithfulness. They flourish even in an hour
of apostasy. They flourish even in their own
weakness, God's grace being made sufficient. They flourish under their burdens.
They flourish and they bring forth fruit unto God. They flourish
with the fruit of the Spirit, which is love and joy and longsuffering
and peace and gentleness and goodness and faith. They grow
in the grace and knowledge of their Lord Jesus Christ. They live because Christ is their
life. And even when they die, they
flourish. That's looking better to me all
the time. When they die, they flourish. See, laid down in that old dust
of the earth, above them all, he raises them up. And they're not only palms in
a desert, but they're cedars in the house
of God. One old preacher said, Grass
which makes hay for oxen is good enough emblem for the unregenerate,
but cedars which build the temple of the Lord are none too excellent
to set forth the heirs of heaven. How long? Look at verse 14. They shall still bring forth
fruit in old age. They shall be fat and flourishing. Why? To show that the Lord is
upright. that he will do in them what
he has promised, that he will make them to be what he has said
that they already are, and that he will glorify, as
has been said, his own faithfulness. He is my rock. You see, the trees of righteousness
Do you ever ride down the interstate where they've cut out these rocks
and here growing out all these little crevices in the rock face
or all these trees, especially sycamore trees, I believe? That's
the way the Lord's people are. They grow out of the rock that
was cleft for them. And there is no unrighteousness. with him. If he says they're
the righteous, you can bet your money on it, they're the righteous.
If he says he planted them, you can bet he planted them. And
if he says they'll flourish, I don't care what comes, they'll
flourish.