Let's turn in our Bibles to Psalm
76. I was just going to briefly look
at these remarkable verses and because Verse 10 is so often
quoted, it is always good when you find something special in
the scriptures that has moved you to actually then go and look
at the verses around it and in the verses around it often there's
a doubling of the blessing. So let's read Psalm 76 and I'll
just make a few comments as we go along. I hope that you find
it glorious. I hope you find it comforting.
I hope you find its truths and the God that's revealed to be
the God who is the one that you worship. because you can only
worship a God who is absolutely sovereign and rules over all
things, a God in whose hand we are rather than a God that we
rule. Psalm 76, to the chief musician
on Niggurnoth, a psalm or song of Asaph. In Judah is God known,
His name is great in Israel. In Salem also is His tabernacle
and His dwelling place in Zion. There break He the arrows of
the bow, the shield, and the sword, and the battle. Selah. Selah is a punctuation mark.
It means to pause and to ponder. Thou art more glorious and excellent
than the mountains of prey. The stout-hearted are spoiled.
They have slept their sleep and none of the men of might have
found their hands. At thy rebuke, O God of Jacob,
both the chariot and the horse are cast into a dead sleep. Thou, even thou, art to be feared,
and who may stand in thy sight once thou art angry? Thou didst
cause judgment to be heard from heaven. The earth feared and
was still when God arose to judgment to save all the meek of the earth. Selah. Surely the wrath of man
shall praise thee, and the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain. Vow and pay unto the Lord your
God that all that be around about him bring presence unto him that
ought to be feared. He shall cut off the spirit of
princes. He is terrible to the kings of
the earth. It is wonderful, isn't it, that
God, this great God that we just sang about, a great God who rules
and reigns in heaven, a God who is invisible to the eyes of men,
is a God who actually makes himself known. In verse 1 it says, in
Judah is God known. He's known, he's made himself
known in his people, he's made himself known amongst those people
of his own. That nation that he created for
himself and for his own glory, that nation that typified the
people of God scattered throughout this world, in Judah. He is known, is God known. His name is great in Israel,
to the Israel of God, those that are princes with God, made to
be so by God's creation and by God's declaration. His name is
great. His name is great. Everything
about our Adam flesh wants to diminish the greatness of the
name of God. The name of God is more than
just a name, it refers to His character, all that He is in
His person. The Israel of God, those who
are the true Israel of God, they esteem His character, their delight,
and they esteem His character the basis of their comfort. We
love the fact that our God is absolutely sovereign. We love
the fact that He reigns and He rules over all things. The Israel
of God loves the fact that He is holy. that He is just in all
that He does. He is perfect in all His ways. He's faithful. He's faithful
to His covenant. He's faithful to His promises.
He's faithful to His word. He's faithful to all the covenant
engagements that He's made before the world began. His name is
great. There is no limit to how great
we can esteem the name of our God. And it's in his character
that we find our comfort. But he's also a God that dwells
specifically, doesn't he? In Salem, in Jerusalem also is
his tabernacle and his dwelling place in Zion. It's remarkable, isn't it? He's
taken upon himself to recreate a place in this earth where he
dwells with his people and reveals himself to his people. his tabernacle,
his dwelling place in Zion. And there in that place he meets
with his people, doesn't he? He met with his people on the
mercy seat. He meets with his people in that
place of sacrifice. He inhabits, it says, he inhabits
the praises of his people. And as they worship at the place
of atonement, at the mercy seat, he inhabits the praises of his
people. This church, the church of God,
is the habitation of God by the Spirit. Such is the wonder of
that remarkable activity of our God in Him, in the Lord Jesus
Christ becoming human flesh, that He could dwell with us,
that He could sympathise with us, that He could meet with us,
that He could talk to us, that He could interact with us as
he did with Abraham and Moses. He spoke to them as a man speaks
to his friend. What a wonder, what a remarkable
condescension, but what remarkable love and what remarkable grace
that sinners such as them could have God come and dwell with
them and speak with them. But in this place, there's a
place of justice, isn't it, there in verse 3, there He'd break
the arrows of the bow and the shield and the sword and the
battle. So all that stood opposed to
Him, all that stood opposed to us, having fellowship with Him,
all of our sin, all of the enmity of the enemies of our great God,
they're all broken down, aren't they? He triumphed, Colossians
2 says, He triumphed over them at the cross. He triumphed over
Satan. He triumphed over sin. He triumphed over all that stood
opposed to us. And because of that, verse 4,
thou art more glorious and excellent than the mountains of prey. That
mountains of prey refers to what people earn through their toil
and through the tumult and through the trials and the wonders of
victory. Kings used to conquer others
so that they could gather wealth and people to themselves. All
those mountains of prey. What do you gain, what do you
gain, said the Lord Jesus Christ, if you gain the whole world and
lose your soul, your eternal soul? What can you give in exchange
for it? All the kingdoms of this world
are counted as nothing. compared to knowing Him. Thou
art more glorious. Thou art more excellent than
all the mountains of prey. The stout-hearted are spoiled. They have slept their sleep.
And none of the men of might have found their hands. What
was it that earned them all of their honour and all of their
glory in the eyes of men and others is what they did with
their right hand, with their power. And that made them stout-hearted,
their pride, aren't they? none of the men of might have
found their hands. What they thought was their strength
was brought to naught, and it's just not found. And in verse
6, at thy rebuke, And he's referring here to Pharaoh, of course. Thy
rebuke, O God of Jacob. Both the chariot and the horse
are cast into a dead sleep. All God had to do to destroy
the army of the greatest superpower on earth at that time was say
a word. And it's glorious, isn't it,
what he said to those people, the people of God, trembling
there at the Red Sea. Behind them is this army, this
mighty army with horses and chariots. In front of them is miles of
water and they weren't prone to swimming. And there they were,
trapped, as it were, at the Red Sea with nowhere to go. Nothing
but terror behind them and nothing but death in front of them. And
what does God say to the people? He says, you stand still, you
stand still, children of God, and wait and see what God did.
And all Moses had to do was hold out that rod. At thy rebuke,
just a word from our God, and all of what seems opposed to
us are cast into a dead sleep. What a wonder, isn't it, that
God can rebuke all of those that stand opposed to us. He can rebuke
Satan and all his viles, can't he? When he brings up Moses and
his law and he looks at a poor, trembling saint of God and says,
how dare you claim yourself to be a Christian when you have
those thoughts and those actions. And all of that, at a word from
God, at a word from God, it's all gone. at thy rebuke, O God
of Jacob, both chariot and horse are cast into a dead sleep."
All we need is a word from our God. And that's why verse 7 is
the covenant promise of God to His chosen people, isn't it?
Thou, even thou, art to be feared. He is to be feared and to be
genuinely feared. And who may stand in thy sight
when once thou art angry? Now God speaks. He rebukes and
then He speaks. And I love the fact of His declaration
of His sovereignty here, isn't it? Thou didst cause judgment
to be heard from heaven. will only hear of judgment to
be heard from heaven when God causes it to be heard. The earth
feared and was still. He causes judgment to be heard
from heaven. The judgment of God upon the
sins of man, the judgment of God upon all the enemies that
stand opposed to him, he'll cause it to be heard from heaven and
the earth will be still in the presence of our great God. When
God, verse 9, when God arose to judge, to judgement, to save
all the meek of the earth. See God is a God who is going
to save on the basis of justice, and judgment. He will not save
anyone, and He cannot save anyone, without all of His glorious attributes
being perfectly revealed. He will not save without there
being perfect justice and perfect holiness. When God arose to judgment,
we are saved because the judgment of God has fallen on His dear
and precious Son. And where the judgment has fallen
once, it becomes an act of injustice for God to judge that person
yet again. God cannot judge people where
there is no sin. And the sins of all of God's
people were put on the Lord Jesus Christ and He bore them in His
own body on the tree and He bore the infinite wrath and the infinite
judgment of God upon them to the extent that the judgment
of God The judgment of God and the justice of God now becomes
the comfort of God's people. I love what it says in the second
half of that verse. At the end of the verse we are
told to pause and to ponder. It says, to save all the meek
of the earth, not to try and save them, not to put them in
a savable state, not to put them in a place where they will be
saved upon their activities of belief. The number of times I
see that in confessions these days, where it's upon your believing
all of the activities and all the glories and the wonders of
the covenant become yours, when you do something, it's exactly
the opposite. It's exactly that. Dead sinners
can't do anything. God gives faith because our God
was faithful to His covenant in eternity. Faith is a gift
of God. It's a grace gift of God. It's
not earned. We were saved from before the
foundation of the world. God arose in judgment not to
try and to save all the meek of the earth. He arose to save
all the meek of the earth. He'll make them meek and He'll
save them. He'll call His name Jesus for
He will save His people from their sins. And you're supposed
to stop. Selah says you stop and think
about it. When God arose to judgment to
save all the meek of the earth. Justice and judgment are the
habitation of the throne of God, according to Psalm 89, 14. And
mercy and truth go before thy face. He rose to judgment. Justice and judgment are the
habitation of his throne. Which is why verse 10 that we'll
look at later on says, surely, surely the wrath of man shall
praise thee. Surely even man raised up in
enmity against God shall praise him. And then the second half
of that verse, which we won't look at in great detail, should
be a remarkable cause of comfort to us. because the remainder
of wrath thou shalt restrain." He is restraining at this very
moment as we speak the wrath of man in this world. As much
as we are grieved by breaking out and causing us concern, and
it should grieve us that there is so much evident sin and so
much enmity against God, and that there is so much evil in
this world, so much perverse evil in this world, so much gratuitous
evil in this world, The reality is that according to this psalm
and according to this verse, the question that should be on
the lips of God's children all the time is not how bad it is, but how remarkably good it is,
because our God's restraining hand upon this society of ours
We know, we know from the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ what
will happen to rational, sane, moral, religious people when
that restraint is taken off them. We are God-hating, people-hating
rebels and God's restraining, He's restraining the population
of Nauru at the moment that we might be able to be here to worship
Him. He's restraining the evil of
Australia. He's restraining the evil of
America and North Korea and Russia and all those others. God is
restraining it. and we ought have every cause
for thankfulness for His restraints on it. Vow. Vow and pay unto the Lord your
God. Let all that be round about Him
bring presence unto Him that ought to be feared. Every time
I think of what we are to pay. Have you paid your vows? Have you made any vows and have
you paid vows? I love what Psalm 116, you can
turn there, it's only a few pages over if you like. But Psalm 116
asks the question and then answers the question beautifully. What? What shall I render? What shall I give? What shall
I return unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me? What? What shall you return to Him?
What shall you bring to Him? I love the answer, isn't it? In verse 13, I will take the
cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. I'll take
the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. I
will pay my vows under the Lord now in the presence of all His
people. Precious in the sight of the
Lord is the death of His saints, and all of the saints of God
died in the Lord Jesus Christ. My death was died 2,000 years
ago. When I leave this earth, all
I'll do is fall asleep into the arms of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Death has lost its sting. Death has lost its power over
the children of God. to cause us to be anything other
than poor who look forward to that time of His departure. It's
better, it is better now for the children of God to be away
from here and to be with the Lord. I will take, take the cup of
salvation and I'll call upon the name of the Lord. I'll call
upon that God who is great. His name is great in Israel. That God, in verse 4, who is
more glorious and excellent than the mountains of praise. That
God who arises to judgment. That God who speaks. That God
who dwells. I'll call upon Him. I'll call upon Him. So much of
salvation, isn't it, is about calling on Him. And then we keep
on calling on Him. I don't know about you, but don't
you keep on calling on Him? Lord, save me. Lord, I believe. Help thou mine unbelief. Lord, if you're willing, you
can make me whole. Call upon Him. Call upon Him. He shall cut off the spirit of
princes. He is terrible to the kings of
the earth. For those who think that they
reign and rule apart from the reign and rule of our God, He
will rule over them, and evidently so. As we journey on our way
through Acts, I wanted us to have this verse from Psalm 76
laid to our hearts. I don't know whether you're familiar
with it, but it's one that's quoted often and it's just a
remarkable description of our God and a remarkable description
of what happened with the early church. And when we come to chapter
8, we find that the persecution that followed the death of Stephen,
they stoned this man to death. I love what Tom Harding wrote,
and it's in our bulletin this week, and he says, he talks about
this contrast. What a demonstration of contrast
between the way of the wicked flesh and the way of sovereign
grace when God's servant Stephen was being stoned to death for
the gospel sake. The enemies of the gospel were
filled with rage. Stephen was filled with joy in
the Lord. They were occupied with hatred. Stephen was bursting with the
love of God shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Spirit. They
were packed with fear. Stephen was occupied with faith. They were chock full of persecution. Stephen was jam-packed with prayer. Oh, what a difference the sovereign
grace of God makes in a believer. Oh, how dreadfully wicked is
the way of sinful flesh. And when we go on in Acts chapter
8, we find that not only did they not find any satisfaction
in the death of Stephen, in fact the death of Stephen just spurred
them on to more hatred and more enmity against the people of
God. And they were scattered and a
great persecution broke out And of course, a part of that persecution,
this church that was gathered together and probably had great
comfort and peace in Jerusalem and the presence of the apostles,
they were scattered to the four winds. But in that scattering
in Acts chapter 8 and then following on in Acts, we'll see that in
that scattering, God worked wonders for his people. And Philip, And
Philip went down to a city of Samaria, it says in Acts chapter
8, and there he preached the gospel and many believed and
many were healed. And in verse 8, as a result of
the death of Stephen and as a result of the persecution of God's people
that broke out at the hands of Saul and his friends, in verse
8, down in the city of Samaria, that hated part, that mongrel
breed as the Jews saw them in that place. In verse 8 of chapter
8 it says, and there was great joy in the city. Such is the
reign and rule of our God that the work, the violent, unjust,
evil work of the enemies of the Gospel ends up being to the praise
of the glory of our God. And remarkably, that psalm that
was written so long ago is a psalm that speaks a great truth, doesn't
it? Surely, God says, surely, it means without any doubt whatsoever,
surely the wrath of man shall praise Thee. Surely the wrath
of man, when man's anger has reached its fever pitch as it
were, when a little spark has blown into a full bushfire of
the wrath of man, surely that wrath of man is controlled by
God and it brings praise to Him. In fact, the wrath of man, it's
almost as if God is mocking the weakness of man in His wrath,
because that word man there in the original means the wrath
of Adam or it means the wrath of clay. The wrath of weak, impotent
men. It is the great work of Satan
in the lives of his people to keep them captive is for them
to think that they shall be as gods, that they reign and rule
and they march around this world and they sit on their little
kingly thrones thinking that they're sovereign. They are but
dust. They are, they are but in the
hands of God. But when their wrath, this wrath
of this weak pathetic clay, it will end up being to the praise
of the glory of God. He overrules all things in providence
and he brings honour to himself. And He works out His wise and
holy and good and just and purposeful designs even in the wrath of
man. That's why the scriptures call
on us. to cease from man, whose breath
is in his nostrils, for wherein is he to be accounted of? We
are to look beyond men, always be looking beyond men, and look
to the glory of our God. Let's not put our faith and our
trust in men, but find our faith and our trust in the living God,
and doing so we will be people who will be faithful and we will
be trusted, and we will be those who are used to God for His glory. The wrath of man, the wrath of
man, the wrath of man breaks out again and again against God
and His sovereign purposes. What did Pharaoh say? Who is
the Lord that we should serve Him? Who is the Lord? Where is your God?" they said
of David. Well, Pharaoh and the enemies
of David were fixing to find out about how big God was. Pharaoh
didn't have to wait too long. But the enemies of God's people
are insistent and persistent, aren't they? And they use derisive
terms against God's people, and they use terms of derision against
His Gospel. They criticize His Church, but
in criticizing His Church and making accusations against us,
they are actually bringing praise to us, aren't they? Those people
believe in sovereign grace. They believe that God saved His
people from before the foundation of the world, and they are put
in the Lord Jesus Christ, and they've always been saved, and
that salvation is revealed by the preaching of the Gospel.
Those people down there preach about Jesus Christ and Him crucified
all the time, and that's all they preach about. Well, I can
put it on my tombstone. It is a badge of honour, the
criticisms that they make of us, that we claim that the Lord
Jesus Christ, as the scriptures declare over and over again,
that He died specifically and purposefully for the people of
God, and having died for them under the justice of God as their
representative and their surety, they are now perfectly free. to worship Him and to live with
Him. We love to declare. The things
that we find the greatest comfort in are the things that we find
ourselves accused of, don't we? When we talk about predestination,
that God chose the people from before the foundation of the
world in the Lord Jesus Christ. And those that are chosen will
come by the preaching of the gospel to a place of saving faith
and they'll call upon the name of the Lord. and they will have
revealed to them again and again, as Paul did, they'll have Christ
revealed in them, and they'll acknowledge that when it pleased
God, when it pleased a sovereign God to save, not when it pleased
the whim and the will and the work of man, when it pleased
God who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by
His grace, When it pleased God to reveal His Son in me, that
I might preach Him among the heathen. When it pleased God,
He saves His people. And having saved them, as we
read in Psalm 76, he saves with a purpose. He makes them meek. He saves them by an act of sovereign
justice and divine mercy and sovereignty and grace. And we
declare a God who rules and reigns over all things, and we declare
a God whose will is done, and we declare that man's will is
captive and weak and are entrapped by the flesh in which it lives
and it's not free. It's no more free than a frog
in a snake's belly is free. And yet all around us people
declare that man's free will is actually a sovereign will
that rules over the purposes of God. Our God reigns. And we declare that God's people
are so completely forgiven of all of their sins in the Lord
Jesus Christ. They're forgiven from their sins in the past,
their sins present, and their sins into the future. And it's
in the wonder of sins being forgiven that God's people are encouraged
and delight in walking before Him. As much as they grieve over
their sins, it's the fact that they are free from them. free
from them, and they're free from the law of God. We are accused
of not putting people back under the law, and therefore, because
we don't put people back under the law, the people of God are
just going to live these wanton, wicked, wild lives. And yet the grace of God, according
to the Scriptures, and where the Spirit of God is, there is
freedom, there is liberty from those things. Our accusers compliment
us at the end of the day, surely the wrath of man shall praise
him. But nowhere, nowhere in the scriptures
is the wrath of man brought to the praise of the glory of God
as in the dealings of people with the Lord Jesus Christ. I
don't know whether you noticed, but I had this message in mind
for some time. But as I was reading through
Mark's Gospel last week, I was just amazed how again and again
and again the enemies of the Lord Jesus Christ in their hatred
of him, proclaimed the gospel." Again and again they proclaimed
the gospel. And that's what I want to look
at this morning. I just want to look at eight
or ten of them that show us that the enemies of God, the enemies
of God, the wrath of man shall praise thee. And so let's begin. We'll turn to Mark's Gospel as
often as we can, but some of the most poignant ones are written
in the other Gospels. But in John 5, verse 18, we find
the enemies of God declaring that the Lord Jesus Christ made
himself The Jews seeking to kill him. The Lord Jesus said in verse
17 of John chapter 5, Jesus answered them, My father worketh hitherto,
and I work. Therefore the Jews sought the
more to kill him. And this is what they thought,
and this is what they declared, because he not only had broken
the Sabbath, but said also that God was his father, making himself
equal with God. What they saw as an accusation
is a declaration of his deity. He said that he was like his
father, as a son is like his father. He bears his father's
name, he bears his father's reputation, and he thought it not robbery
to be made equal with God. Being in the form of God, he
thought it not robbery to be equal with God. His enemies declared
the Gospel to us. They declared his deity. They
said, this man makes himself to be like God. It is fascinating,
isn't it, when we read through the scriptures and read through
the words of the enemies of the Lord Jesus Christ, how with absolute
clarity they understood what he was saying about himself and
about his people. And yet, bright so-called theologians
and others want to debate about those things today. Those who
walk with him and have three years to examine him and examine
him as closely as they possibly could, they had absolutely no
doubt about his claims. And they declare the Gospel to
us, don't they? The wrath of man shall praise
thee. They declared his deity. They also wonderfully declare
his humanity in Matthew chapter 13 and in many other places,
we read it in Mark's Gospel, that there he was when he came
back to his own people, they had no doubt that he was a man,
he was made a man just like us. In Matthew chapter 13, verse
54, they say, we're having taught in the synagogue
Where did this man, where has this man got this wisdom and
these mighty works? They not only declared his deity,
they declared the wonder of his humanity. In Luke chapter 4 you
know the story that happened there in Nazareth. They wanted
to declare the fact, is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his
mother called Mary and his brethren James and Joseph and Simon and
Judith and his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence hast
this man all these things? And they were offended at him.
They declared his deity and they declared his humanity. He is
as much a man as we are men. His family was as human as we
are. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. He really was a man. He was made a man. He donned
that body that was prepared for him by his father. He came into
this world as a man to suffer the death that a man should die
for the sins that man has done. You made him a little lower than
the angels. Thou crowned him with glory and
honour and set him over the works of his hands. We see Jesus who
was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering
of death. He was made a man. For it became him, Hebrews 2.10,
for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing
many sons into glory to make the captain of their salvation
perfect through sufferings. As a man, he really suffered. He really did live as a man upon
this earth. And what a man he was. What a
man. What a wonder, isn't it, to declare,
as these enemies of the Lord Jesus Christ did, that this man
lived the life lived that perfect life of perfect righteousness,
the only man who ever walked this earth who loved God with
all of his heart and soul and mind and strength, the only man
who ever walked this earth who lived in perfect faithfulness
all the days of his life, the only man who knew what it was
to be in the presence of God all the time. They declared His
deity and the wrath of man shall praise Thee. They declared His
humanity and in their wrath, what they thought was demeaning
of Him, they were actually exalting the Gospel. They were preaching
the Gospel to us. In Mark chapter 2 is that familiar
story, you know the one about the paralytic who was brought
by four of his friends. It's a great picture of saving
grace, isn't it? If you're going to be brought
to salvation, you'll be brought as a paralytic. You'll be brought
by the hands beyond yourself. They came, they crowded that
house to see a healer, all of those people. And then the Lord
Jesus Christ completely surprised them by His declaration, didn't
He? They declared the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ and
they declared His absolute sovereignty and they declared His deity.
In Mark Chapter 2, we read it last week, And they came down,
and Jesus saw their faith. Verse 5, He said unto the sick
of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. But there were
certain of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their
hearts, Why does this man Why does this man thus speak blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God
alone? What a great declaration of the
Gospel. Who can forgive sins but God alone? If I happen to be driving down
the road and my friend Norm's driving in front of me and the
policeman pulls him over because he's been naughty on the road
and I pull up behind Norm and get out of my car and I go over
to the policeman and say, well I forgive him. The policeman
will turn around to me and say, your forgiveness means absolutely
nothing. He hasn't broken your law, he's broken mine. Sins,
Psalm 51 makes so abundantly clear, doesn't it? Sins are against
God and God alone. And these enemies declared the
divine power of God against you, says the psalmist, and you only
have I sinned. None can forgive sins but God
alone. Who can forgive sins but God
alone? And then the Lord Jesus Christ
presents himself. He uses the enmity of these people
that stood opposed to him and he uses their accusation to make
this glorious, glorious declaration, doesn't he? And immediately Immediately
when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within
themselves, he said unto them, Why reason these things in your
hearts? He actually saw into their hearts.
Whether it is easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins
be forgiven thee, or to say, Arise, take up thy bed, and walk. What's the easiest? It's very
easy to make a declaration, isn't it? It's very easy to say some
words, isn't it? Son, thy sins are forgiven thee.
But the Lord Jesus Christ declared, but that you may know that the
Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins. He then said
to the sick of the palsy, I say unto thee, arise, take up thy
bed, and go thy way into thine own house. And immediately he
arose. His enemies had declared the
Gospel. The wrath of man shall praise
Thee. His enemies declared the Gospel."
And the Lord Jesus Christ took the opportunity of the enmity
against him to actually bring great glory to his name. Such
is the case, brothers and sisters. I suppose that's why I want to
keep harping on this verse. Surely, surely, says our God,
surely the wrath of man shall praise Thee." We do, we do struggle
again and again with the hardness of the human hearts and the seeming
deadness of those around us and we've struggled at times with
the things that they said against us. that this verse and all of
the truth of the scriptures should cause us to pause and to stop
and to cease from men and look away from what they say and look
beyond it and look to what our great God has done. Surely the wrath of man shall
praise thee. Our God will have his way and
he rules and he reigns over all things. They declared His deity,
they declared His humanity, they declared His divine power, they
declared the deity of Him in forgiving sins. They declared
His absolute sovereignty, didn't they? Again and again they declared
His sovereignty in all sorts of ways. But these enemies, these enemies
accused Him in Mark chapter 3, the next chapter over, they accused
Him of being possessed Beelzebub, but listen to what they say.
He hath Beelzebub, and by the prince of devils he casts out
demons. So what they were declaring was,
in what they thought they were declaring was that he was actually
ruled by Beelzebub, but what they actually said was that he
actually has him. He has Beelzebub, he has Satan
on a leash. He's God's devil. And when Satan
moves too far, he just pulls on the lead and he comes back.
He rules over them. The Lord Jesus Christ declared
and ruled over all the demons, and they declared who He was.
We know who you are. We know you're the Holy One of
God." And they declared the fact again and again that He rules
over them. He rules over Beelzebub. He rules over Satan. He rules
over men. Mark's Gospel shows us that He
rules over the waves. He rules over disease. He rules
over the wind. He rules over death itself and
all that's required is a touch from Him. He rules over the demons. He rules the demons and He has
Beelzebub. He has him in the palm of His
hand and He'll only move and only do according to the will
of our great God. There is that famous verse, they
declared not only His deity and His humanity and His power and
His wisdom and His right to forgive sins, but they declared substitutionary
atonement, they declared the gospel of particular redemption. There is that famous verse, that
famous verse is at the end of John chapter 11. when they had
planned and plotted to kill him. And the closer we get to the
cross we find more and more the enemies, the wrath of man shall
praise him. The closer we get to the cross
and on the cross we find again and again that they are declaring
the gospel to us. They gathered to kill him. They
plan to kill him. And Caiaphas, who is the high
priest, makes these amazing declarations in John chapter 11 from verse
45 on. They gathered, verse 47, and
gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees, a council, and
said, What do we? For this man does many miracles.
If we let him thus alone, all men will believe in him. And
the Romans shall come and take away both our place and our nation.
And one of them, named Caiaphas, being the high priest that same
year, said unto them, You know nothing at all, nor consider
it that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the
people and that the whole nation should perish not. See, even
the enemies of God, like Balaam, are overruled by the sovereign
hand of our God. They were planning to kill the
Lord Jesus Christ, and Caiaphas was made of God to preach the
Gospel. Verse 51 makes it clear. And
he spake this not of himself, but being high priest that year,
he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation, for the
Israel of God, and not only for that nation, but also he should
gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad. Such is the declaration of the
glory of our great Redeemer. He'll gather, he shall gather
the children of God. They'll be gathered as one. They declare again and again,
to go back to Mark's Gospel, in His Atonement He will gather
His people together. And on the cross we see Him doing
exactly as Caiaphas said, that the children of God would be
as one. They will be gathered together by our Lord Jesus Christ. And when the soldiers, after
his trial before Caiaphas and after his trial before Pilate,
the soldiers mocked him in Mark chapter 15 verse 16, the soldiers
led him away to the hall corporatorium and there they called together
the whole band and they clothed him with purple and plaited a
crown of thorns and put it about his head and began to salute
him. And what did they say? What did
they say to these enemies who had scourged Him and mocked Him? They began to salute Him, Hail
King of the Jews. They declared His kingship. They declared the fact that He
is to all the true Jews, to all the Israel of God, to those who
He makes Himself known in Judah and His name is great in Israel,
the true Israel of God, the true Jews, all the Israel of God,
they delight to declare the fact that He is the King of the Jews. They love the fact that in his
kingship he rules and reigns over all things. Their comfort
is in the fact that he is sovereign. I don't know what lies before
any of us. None of us ever do. But one thing
that we know is that whatever comes our way has come from the
hand of the sovereign God. Hail, King of the Jews, the enemy
said, and surely the wrath of man shall praise thee. As the
true Jews, we love the fact that He is God and God alone. And like all true servants of
a great king, the one thing that the servants delight most is
to be made use of by their king. There's a story told of a gardener
who was elevated to be the gardener in one of the royal courts. in
England and he loved his rose garden and one morning he went
out and there he found that someone had been picking his roses and
he was enraged and he went around looking for all the servants
and other people that might have come and stolen his roses and
then someone said, no the king came walking in the garden and
he took the roses. That's exactly what they were
growing for. What began as rage became delight
when you realise that this is from the hand of the King. To
be a servant of this King is wonderful, isn't it? They declare
His deity, His humanity. They declare His faithfulness,
doesn't he? In Matthew chapter 27 and verse
43, I sigh of him. He trusted in
God. He trusted in God. Let him deliver him now." He
trusted in God. What a great description of our
Saviour. He trusted in God. From his mother's
womb he trusted in God. As a child he trusted in God.
Throughout all of his life he trusted in God. And now at this
time of the greatest trial of his life, When Heaven seemed
shut against Him, when all of this world seemed opposed to
Him and enraged and enmity against Him, they declared the Gospel
to us. He trusted in God. I love how
Paul describes his life. The life I now live in the flesh,
the life I'm now living right now, how do I live it? I live
by the faithfulness of the Son of God who loved me and gave
himself for me. The wrath of man shall praise
him." They declared that he trusted in God. I love the fact that
he trusted in God. He trusted in the Lord that he
would deliver him. They were quoting Psalm 22 and
they probably didn't even know it. But just a couple of verses
earlier they said, in their mockery of him, He says, likewise also
the chief priests with the scribes and elders said, mocking him,
they said, he saved others, himself he cannot save. He saved others, Himself He cannot
save. If He be King of Israel, let
Him come down now from the cross and we will believe in Him. He
saved others, Himself He cannot save. He could not save himself
because he would not save himself. Was he lacking power to save
himself? He could have called on legions
of angels in a heartbeat and they would have been there. He
sovereignly ruled over that. He could not save himself. because he had to save his people
from their sins. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts,
Behold, I will save my people. He will save his people. That
was his promise. That's what he came for. He couldn't
save himself. But in not saving himself, he
saved that multitude that must come from the East Country and
the West Country. And then these enemies before
Pilate declared something remarkable. They said, let his blood be upon
us and upon our children. See, his blood is upon everyone,
isn't it? His blood is upon your hands
to condemn you. You are not innocent. His blood
is either on your hands to condemn you or it's on you to cleanse
you and to wash you from all your sins. It's Him that loved
us and washed us from our sins in His own blood. The blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. Let His blood be upon us. Let
us be washed in it. Let us rejoice in that blood
that was shed. Let us rejoice in all what it
means for the father to crush his son and for the son willingly
to save his people. Let his blood be upon us, children
of God. And we'll close with that lovely
statement that made in rebuke of him in Luke chapter 15 verse
2. All the publicans and sinners
drew near to hear him. It's remarkable how attractive
the Lord Jesus Christ was to publicans and sinners. In verse
2 of Luke 15, and the Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying,
This man receiveth sinners and eats with them. Are there any
sinners in the house? A sinner is a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost has made him so. Sinners are sacred. I don't meet
many sinners. I don't find many sinners when
I talk to people. I find many righteous people.
I find many proud people. I find many princes and kings.
But a sinner is a sacred thing. A sinner is someone who knows
that against God and God only has he sinned and done this evil
in his heart. I love Todd Nybert's description
of a sinner. A sinner is someone who cannot
not sin. Righteous people can always do
some righteousness and I love to tell you about it. Sinners
are sacred things. This man, this man receives sinners. This man receives sinners. Not only does he receive sinners,
but he eats with them. He comes to that place where
they are and he has the sweetness of that fellowship with them. This man receives sinners. He's always been receiving sinners. He continues to receive sinners. The sinner who came to him at
the temple, didn't he? Went home righteous. went home justified. He came to the Lord Jesus as
a sinner, and what did he say? He said, Lord, be merciful to
me. What he was saying was, Lord,
look on the Lord Jesus Christ and all that He has done, bearing
my sins, robing me in His righteousness, look on Him, look on Him and
be merciful to me. He went home, declared by God
to be righteous, to be right with God now and forevermore. This man receives sinners. Come to Him, sinners. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we do thank
You that again and again, as much as man's rage is directed
at the Lord Jesus Christ and directed at His people, We praise
You, Heavenly Father, in Your absolute sovereignty and rule
over all things, that You have declared to us that surely the
wrath of man shall praise You. May it be our portion, Heavenly
Father, to see through the eyes of faith that the rebukes of
people against the Gospel, the free and sovereign grace in the
Lord Jesus Christ, are there to remind us that the Rosser
man does praise Him as it did in His life and in His death
and in the glories of what He achieved in that church and is
still achieving with His church in this world today, where He
dwells with His people and He makes Himself known to them,
where He receives sinners and where He eats with them. May
He, Heavenly Father, be our portion. May we continually find ourselves
coming to the throne of grace, that we might find help in time
of need for sinners, unneedy people. Please make us needy. Please feed us with the bread
of Heaven, Heavenly Father, as we come to this time of remembering
yet again our Lord Jesus Christ and what it cost for Him to have
us as His bride. Help us to be reminded yet again
of how dearly loved the children of God are in this world and
how wonderfully He reigns and rules over all things for their
good. and for His glory. Help us to
come as needy sinners, our Father. For we pray in Jesus' name and
for His glory. Amen.