I almost want to say too late,
other preachers, I got this psalm first. What a blessing. Psalm 65. Praise waiteth for
thee, O God, in Sion. and unto thee shall the vow be
performed. O thou that hearest prayer, unto
thee shall all flesh come. Iniquities prevail against me. As for our transgressions, thou
shalt purge them away. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and 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. By terrible things in righteousness
wilt thou answer us, O God of our salvation, who art the confidence
of all the ends of the earth and of them that are afar off
upon the sea." We'll stop our reading there. You know, David
looks to see the nations gathered together in praise for God. It's
as if he could see Revelation 5 and Revelation 9. when he said,
people from every kindred and tongue and people and nation
will gather there one day and worship the Lord, a multitude
that no man could number. And David sees them coming to
Christ because of God's choosing them. You know, even the patriarch
David blessed Judah and said unto him, unto the Lord Christ,
shall the gathering of the people be unto Shiloh, unto the Lord
Jesus Christ, the descendant of Judah. And said unto him,
shall all the gathering of the people be. You know, I want to
concentrate on verse four primarily. Verse four, blessed. He starts
out and says, blessed is the man. As believers, we are truly
blessed. Isn't that true? Truly blessed. as believers in Christ. Blessed
means extremely happy, joyful, and content. The word is used
19 times in the Psalms referring to people. The joy and the contentment
of being a child of the King, being a child of God. You know,
he had said once in Psalm, I think it was Psalm 33, blessed is the
nation whose God is the Lord. whose people that he had chosen
for his own inheritance, contentment and blessing and happiness from
being a child of God. Paul said in Philippians, I have
learned that in whatsoever I am, whatsoever state I am, therewith
to be content. And I like what John Bunyan said
in that great poem, the shepherd boy sings in the valley of humiliation.
He says, He that is down needs fear, no fall. He that is low,
no pride. He that is humble ever shall
have God to be his guide. I am content with what I have,
little be it or much, and Lord, contentment still I crave. For
thou say that such fullness to such a burden is that go on pilgrimage
here a little and hereafter bliss is best from age to age. You know, learning contentment
and happiness no matter what the situation is, because this
is our father's world and God is drawing people to himself
out of every nation. He's saving his elect by what
the Lord Jesus Christ has done. You know, Lazarus was more blessed
than the rich man, wasn't he? The rich man might've had a lot
of riches, right? He might've had a lot of comforts.
He might've not had to worry where the next meal was coming
in. And then Lazarus, you know, he was just waiting for the scraps
to fall from the rich man's table. But if you look at the ride that
Lazarus got, the angels took Lazarus to Abraham's bosom. And while the rich man woke up
in hell, what is it worth? Have all the riches of the world
and wake up in hell. Lazarus was blessed. We're blessed.
How are we blessed? I'd like to just ask a few questions
about this. How are we blessed? Well, Ephesians
1 says we're blessed with every spiritual blessing, all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. You know, 2
Peter comments on this also, because Peter says, it says,
whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises. that that by these you might
be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption
that is in the world through lust. What are these promises
and blessings? He said these great, precious,
precious promises. They're the blessings of the
covenant of grace, the blessings of God's covenant of peace. or
the New Covenant. In fact, in Jeremiah 31, he says
in verse 33, he says this, I will put my law in their inward parts
and write it in their hearts, and I will be their God. Now
you talk about a blessing, God being your God. He's my God. I'm blessed. I call him mine. Oh, wow. And he also says later
on in Jeremiah 31, he says, they all shall know me. And he says,
from the least of them into the greatest of them, saith the Lord,
for I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin
no more. Forgiven. And then Ezekiel 36,
in verse 25, it says, then I will sprinkle clean water upon you.
You shall be clean from all your filthiness and from all your
idols. I will cleanse you. A new heart
will I give you. A new spirit will I put in you.
In verse 27, he says, I will put my spirit within you. In
verse 28, he says, and you shall dwell in the land that I've given
to your fathers and you shall be my people and I will be your
God. There it is again. And you know, he talked to Nicodemus
in John three and referred to this as being born again, referred
to this scripture. He said, you're a master in Israel.
You don't know this one that where he said you would pour,
he would pour clean water on you and put a new heart and a
new spirit in you. That's being born again. The
new birth. And God being our God, think
of all that it means. I want to just go through a few
of them. Redemption through his blood, being a child of the king,
having our high priest that is representing us in heaven, 24
hours a day, answer prayer, his watchful eye over us, his spirit
working in us. Nothing can separate us from
the love of God. And Jesus is our shepherd and
guide, the riches of glory in eternity and then eternity being
face to face with the Lord. Even though, even though now,
as Lazarus knew, and many of you know, even though now we
have momentary sadness because of the enemy of our soul. The
psalmist said, we pass through the valley of Baca, the valley
of tears. But he said in Psalm 84, they'll
make it a well, and the rain filleth the pools. You see, that's
the blessings from above. God fills the pools with his
rain, not the tears, the rain fills the pools. Oh, Psalm 94
says, blessed is the man whom thou chastenest. You see, it
can be sorrow, but you're still blessed. Chasten us and teach
us him out of thy law. Spurgeon once wrote, against
me, hell and earth and hell combine, but on my side is power divine. Jesus is all and he is mine. Oh my, that's a wonderful poem.
And I want to ask, now that we see why or how are we blessed,
I want to say why are we blessed? Why is the man here in Psalm
65 blessed? Because of the purpose of God
in giving a people to his son. You know, he said in Psalm 2,
ask of me and I will give you the heathen, the nations, for
your inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession,
in Psalm 2. You know, he says here in verse
4, in Psalm 65, 4, blessed is the man whom thou choosest. Whom thou choosest. He chose
us. We did not and we would not ever
choose God. He had to choose us. He had to
choose us. Scripture teaches that He chose
us in the eternal counsel of his will from eternity before
the world was formed. In fact, 1 Timothy 1.9, a well-worn
scripture you all have marked in your Bible, 1 Timothy 1.9
says, or 2 Timothy 1.9, I'm sorry, who has saved us and called us
with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
his own purpose. and grace, which was given us
in Christ Jesus before the world began. Let me read that again.
Who has saved us, talking about the Lord, who has saved us and
called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but
according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us
in Christ Jesus before the world began. What a wonderful verse
is that. And Titus 1 says the same thing.
Oh, listen. Why are we blessed? Not because
of us. We're not blessed because of
us. We're blessed because he chose us. God chose us according
to his eternal counsel and purpose. In Romans 8, 28, another well-known
verse, sometimes we pass over this, he says, but he says, we
are the called, he says, you know, he says, all things work
together for good to them who are the called according to his
purpose. According to his purpose, there
is his divine purpose, his eternal purpose in grace, in the mystery
of his divine counsel. Look over in Romans 9 and verse
11, referring to Jacob and Esau. Romans 9 and verse 11, referring
to Jacob and Esau. for the children being not yet
born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose
of God, according to election, might stand not of works, but
of him that calleth. It was said unto her, the elder
shall serve the younger." The elder shall serve the younger
because it was not of works. The calling of God was not of
works. The purpose of God was not according to anything that
they had done, but according to His purpose and grace. but of him that calleth, it says,
for it was said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger.
Ephesians states this also, to him who works all things after
the counsel of his own will. You know, God's covenant and
his promises were so important that God confirmed them to Abraham
in an oath. I'm talking about the purpose
of God that he had, the promise that he had given Abraham. Look
back in Hebrews chapter 6 and verse 17 and 18. Hebrews chapter
6, verse 17 and 18. 6, 17. wherein God, willing more abundantly
to show unto the heirs of the promise the immutability of his
counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things
in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong
consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope
that was set, the hope set before us." Two immutable things. He had already given the promise
to Abraham. He had already given the covenant to Abraham. And
then he swore by himself that in his seed would all nations
of the earth be blessed. And Paul said his seed was Christ.
His seed is Christ. In Christ, God is saving all,
many, many from every nation, all nations, and many from every
nation. Paul stated that Christ, our
Lord and Savior, is the seed that God promised, and that he
preached the gospel unto Abraham. Some in every nation will be
blessed in His seed, the Lord Jesus Christ. All nations shall
be blessed. And that goes back to that Revelation
7 and Revelation 5 again, where it said people of every tribe,
town, kindred, and nation will be there at the throne of God. Some of every people group will
be represented there. Everyone will be blessed by Christ
Jesus the Lord in salvation because he's redeeming his people to
himself. So God chose us according to
his divine purpose. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causest to approach unto thee. So we are truly blessed
and that according to God's divine purpose to choose us for himself
and to give us unto his son. He said in the Gospels, he said,
as thou has given him power over all flesh, that he should give
eternal life to as many as thou has given him. in John 17, too. Why are we blessed? Not because
he saw anything in us that was lovely or worthy. In fact, in
Deuteronomy, he says the Lord did not set his love upon you
nor choose you because you were more in number than any other
people, for you were the fewest of all people. But because the
Lord loved you, he bases the reason of his love upon his love.
because the Lord loved you and because he would keep the oath
that he had sworn unto your fathers, the covenant, you see, that we
would be saved in Christ Jesus. Why are we blessed? Why are we
blessed? Not because of anything that
was good to be seen in us. God shows us according to his
eternal love, his eternal love. Look in 1 Peter 1, 1 and 2. Not too far from Hebrews there.
1 Peter 1, 1 and 2, Peter, an apostle
of Jesus Christ to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus,
Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to
the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification
of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of
Jesus Christ. Grace unto you and peace be multiplied. Look at those words, elect according
to the foreknowledge of God the Father. chosen, elect according
to foreknowledge. What is that word foreknowledge?
Well, the religionist, the false free will religion will say that
foreknowledge just means that God saw in the future and he
knew what you were going to do and he knew you were going to
choose him, so therefore he chose you. That's blasphemy, my friends.
That's blasphemy. Actually, foreknowledge means
to set his love on someone from before time. for knowledge means
to know someone before time. Arthur W. Pink says, elect any
sinner because he foresaw that he would believe, for the simple
but sufficient reason that no sinner ever believes until God
gives him faith, just as no man sees until God gives him sight."
That word that's used for the word for knowledge is used just
a few times in Scripture, in the New Testament. It's always
used of people and not of events. You only, he says, have I known
among... Sorry, let me say it again. You only have I known of all
the families of the earth. And that's that word known. Known
is the intimate knowledge, is relational knowledge that he
has, is to set his love upon a person. Jeremiah 31.3 comments
on this and it says, The Lord hath appeared of old, saying
unto me, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. We're blessed with an everlasting
love. Why are we blessed? Because God
loved us. He loved us from eternity. Oh, my friends, it's just so
beautiful. Therefore, in loving kindness,
he said, therefore, I have drawn thee in loving kindness. God loved us and he bases his
love on his love. It's just because it's a mystery
of God's divine counsel. We'll never get into that. We'll
never find that out. And thank the Lord, we'll never
find that out. But we'll never know that reason. There's no reason. God loved
us because he loved us. He loved us. Oh, my. Why are we blessed? Why are we
blessed? Not because of anything in us.
God chose us in his son. The mediator of the covenant
of peace or the covenant of grace, number three, because God chose
us. in His Son, the mediator of the
covenant of peace or the covenant of grace. Ephesians 1, 4 and
5 says this, according to as He has chosen us in Him before
the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without
blame before Him in love, having predestined us under the adoption
of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good
pleasure of His will. And in Romans 8, in verse 29,
Romans 8 in verse 29. It says, for whom he did foreknow,
there's that word again, he also did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among
many brethren. Christ was to bring many sons
to glory and to be conformed unto his image. And we're predestined
to be conformed to His image. People, they say predestination. They ought to say more about
foreknowledge than predestination. That God loved me because He
loved me. Because He had a purpose in giving me and you to His Son
to be His bride. In eternity past. And none of
us deserved it. But God set His love upon us
because He set His love upon us. My, my, my. Christ was to bring many sons
to glory, to be conformed to His image. Isaiah 8 says, Behold,
I and the children whom the Lord hath given unto me, God gave
us to His Son when He set Him up as the God-man mediator of
the covenant of peace. And the book of Proverbs 8, verse
22. Let's look over there. Proverbs
8, verse 22. It's a beautiful set of verses
here. And very mysterious. 8, verse 22, referring to the Lord
Jesus Christ here, whose wisdom personified. In 822, the Lord
possessed me in the beginning of his way before his works of
old. Before his works of old, I was
set up from everlasting, from the beginning or ever the earth
was. Referring to the Lord Jesus Christ,
obviously not the second person of the Trinity, but as the God-man
mediator. He was set up by the Lord in
that covenant of grace and established that covenant of peace or grace. Many times it's referred to the
covenant of peace with us and our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
is prophesied throughout scripture. Many places throughout scripture,
while you have your hand there in the Old Testament, look over
to Isaiah 54, verse 10. Another beautiful reference to
the covenant of peace or the covenant of grace or the covenant
of redemption, like we say. We'll look at Isaiah 54, 10 and
Isaiah 55, 3 quickly. He says, for the mountains shall
depart and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart
from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed,
saith the Lord that hath mercy upon me. He's comparing that
to the mountains. Even the mountains can break
away and be removed, but my kindness will not depart from thee. You
know, we look at that as something permanent, you know, and yet
he says, no, they'll fall, but my love will never fall. No,
my covenant of peace will never be removed, saith the Lord that
hath mercy. See, the covenant of peace has to do with the mercy
that he had on us in the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at Isaiah
55, 3. Incline your ear and come unto
me. Here and your soul shall live and I will make an eternal
covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David." The sure mercies
of Christ. That's who he's referring to.
Incline your ear and come to me and I will give you the sure
mercies of David. What a beautiful scripture. And
Hebrews refers to this. Let's don't look at it. But this
is also a well-known verse where he says in Hebrews 13, the God
of peace that brought again from the dead, the Lord Jesus, that
great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant. You see, Christ established that
eternal covenant and sealed it in his blood. You know, it was
his blood that was shed upon the cross. The same covenant
he's referring to in Isaiah 54 and Isaiah 55. Christ is mentioned
in Malachi 3 where he says, Behold, I will send my messenger and
he shall prepare the way before me. and the Lord whom ye seek
shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant."
You see, he was sent here to finish the work that his father
had given him to do and to be the messenger of the covenant.
The messenger of the covenant. And it says, whom ye delight
in, behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. And let's
look at the how of the messenger of the covenant. How did he secure
that covenant? Well, he said in John, If I be
lifted up of the earth, I will draw all unto me. All that the
Father giveth me shall come unto me, and he that cometh unto me
I will in no wise cast out. He's talking about the drawing
power of the Father, how He draws His elect to Him. And He says
Him being lifted up, they understood completely what He was talking
about. Lifted up from the earth was to die upon the cross. If
I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all unto me. All
that He's gonna call, He will draw to Himself. All that the
father has given him shall come to me. And he said another place,
he said, I pray not for the world, but for those whom thou has given
me out of the world. He finished the work that the
father had given him to do to bring many sons to glory. Let's
look back at Isaiah, Isaiah, chapter 42, Isaiah 42. This is a beautiful passage of
scripture referring to the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's look at chapter 42 in verse
4 through 6, and then we'll look
over at verse 21. He shall not fail nor be discouraged.
We're talking about the servant of Jehovah, the Lord Jesus Christ
here in Isaiah 42. And he says he shall not fail
nor be discouraged till he have set judgment in the earth. And
the isles shall wait for his law, thus saith God, the Lord,
he that created the heavens and stretched them out. He that spread
forth the earth and that which cometh out of it, he that giveth
breath unto the people upon it and the spirit unto them that
walk therein. I, the Lord, have called thee in righteousness.
I will hold thine hand. I will keep thee and will give
thee for a covenant of the people and of the light to the Gentiles. And look at verse seven, to open
the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from prison and
them that sit in darkness out of the prison house. Now look
down to verse 21. The Lord is well pleased for
his righteousness sake. He will magnify the law and make
it honorable. He will magnify the law and make
it honorable. How did he fulfill that covenant?
He died upon the cross for us, as we saw earlier, But also looking
here in this verse four, he shall not fail nor be discouraged till
he has set judgment in the earth. He will be successful. He's a
successful savior in drawing all his unto himself, in dying
for their sins, in paying everything that they owed. You see, he's
a surety, meaning he paid all that what we owed. And look what
he says here in verse 21, the Lord is well pleased for his
righteousness sake. He will magnify the law and make
it honorable. You know, he made it honorable
by putting himself under it for one way. He magnified the law
to show the law is spiritual. And the law would even refer
to, if you even look at a person, look at a woman to lust after
you've already committed adultery with her in your heart. The law
is something so hard to fulfill, but he fulfilled it all. He fulfilled
it completely and he established a perfect righteousness and an
eternal righteousness, according to the book of Daniel, that this
righteousness would be given unto us who trust in him. We're blessed. We're blessed
because we're blessed in the surety of the covenant. You know,
in 2 Corinthians 5.21, he says, For he hath made him, the Lord
Jesus Christ, to be sin for us, he who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. You see, he established
that righteousness and gives it and grants it and imputes
it, meaning counts us righteous with that righteousness. that
the Lord Jesus Christ established. He puts it on our account when
he saves us by his blood. In 1 Peter 2.24, he says, He
not only would finish the work of fulfilling his part as the
surety of the covenant, doing all that was necessary to complete
the work on our part. You see, there's nothing we could do.
We were helpless sinners. And he did all. to bring us to himself. That
result is that he would be our sanctuary and dwelling place,
that we would worship and glorify him and find our purpose and
joy in the fellowship of him in worship. Look back in our
psalm again, our psalm, Psalm 65, verse 4. Psalm 65 and verse
4 again. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causest 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. He was to be
a sanctuary for us. You know, Isaiah 8 talks about
that, referring to our Lord and Savior. He shall be for us sanctuary,
but for a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to both
houses of Israel. To some, he would be a stone
of stumbling, To some, a rock of offense. To others, he would
be a wonderful sanctuary of safety. If you look back there in verse
four of our text, we shall be satisfied with the goodness of
thy house, even of thy holy temple. He's a sanctuary of safety. We
run into him and we find shelter and we worship and we glorify
him. We find our joy from worshiping him. David had said, God is our
refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. And the psalmist
also said, one thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek
after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days
of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in
his holy temple. in our Lord and Savior, our sanctuary. Lastly, I'd like to say another
question. How can we be eternally joyful
in his presence? Maybe some sinner is asking that.
Some person that the Lord is drawing to himself. How can I
participate in that? How can I take part in that covenant
of peace? Well, it's very simple. It's so simple that the religious
man stumbles over it. Look to Christ. Look to Christ,
repent and trust Christ alone. See yourself as vile. You see,
that's a gift of the Holy Spirit. Seeing yourself as vile and putrid
in his sight and then looking, turning from your sins and trusting
in Christ. Repentance and faith are all
gifts of the Spirit of God. That's something that the lost
man would never want, would he? The lost man would never want
to see him that way. It's the farthest thing from
his mind. His will is to run just as hard and as fast as his
legs can carry him away from Christ, either in pleasure or
in wantedness, like the person who tries to forget God or to
go by the way of the law. like the worldly wise man in
Pilgrim's Progress, going by the way of morality, trying to
establish our righteousness before God, that's the lost man. That's
the man who is wandering far away from God in self-righteous
rags. of religion, comparing ourselves
with ourselves. As one preacher said, Mr. Not
so bad. You know, I'm not so bad. You
know, you can hear the sinner saying that I'm not so bad. I'm
not as bad as my neighbor down the street. You know, a person
has to see himself as vile. A lost man will never see that
till God grants him repentance. And I pray there's some. The
Lord will grant repentance. Our only hope is in mercy. You
know, we're so thankful that God is rich in mercy. Pray for
mercy. Pray for mercy. You don't want
justice. Look at our text in Psalm 65,
3, verse 3. Here's the problem. My iniquities prevail against
me. Verse three, iniquities prevail against me. As for our transgressions,
thou shall purge them away. He took our sins and his own
body on the tree and purged them away. Oh, praise the Lord. By himself, the book of Hebrews
says, by himself, he purged our sins. Wow. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causest. Look at that word in verse four.
And causest. to approach unto thee. The Lord
calls us with his irresistible effectual call. He says, if I
be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men unto me.
No man can come unto me unless the Father who sent me draw him,
and I will raise him up on the last day. Think of Paul on his
way to kill Christians and stamp out all vestiges of this new
religion in his day. And he was bent on doing everything
he could to get rid of Christianity until Christ got a hold of his
attention and knocked him off his horse of religion. and brought
him to himself when it pleased God. Paul said later in Galatians,
I love that, when it pleased God, who called me from my mother's
womb by his grace and saved me. Oh, wow. Think of the repentant
thief who just a moment before on the cross, one was crucified
on one side, one was crucified on the other side. Just a moment
before, they were together in reviling Christ. And it says
the thieves both cast the same at him in their teeth. That is, you know, that they
were both cursing him. And yet, just an instant, the
thief realized he has done nothing wrong. Why is he being crucified?
He couldn't be being crucified for his own sins. Maybe he's
being crucified for my sins. That's the person who the Father
draws to him. The same ones that crucified
Christ 50 days earlier, and that cried away with him, crucify
him, and the Lord prayed for them on the cross, and 3,000
were saved on the day of Pentecost. I like what the hymn writer Isaac
Watts wrote, and I'll close with this. Why was I made to hear
thy voice and enter while there's room when thousands make a wretched
choice and rather starve than come. It was the same love that
spread the feast, that sweetly drew us in, else we had still
refused to taste and perished in our sins. Our text in Psalm
65 says, blessed, happy, and eternally blessed is the man
whom thou choosest and causest 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." Thank you.