Psalm 76, we'll just kind of
start at verse 1. This psalm has a very powerful
statement in it. You know, that's a hard thing
to say because everything God says is powerful, but you know
what I mean by it. It's intriguing and mysterious
and very revealing, very instructive. We'll see that and it'll be the
title of the message will be taken from that verse and the
title is God praised by man's wrath. That says more than it
seems on the surface that says a lot. But in verse one in Judah,
that's in, we've seen that before, that's the church, isn't it?
That's in Judah, in Jerusalem, the city of peace. That's a picture
of the church. That's the city of God and where
God's people dwell. Is God known? They know God there. That was certainly true of earthly
Israel, wasn't it? They know God. He revealed himself
to them. Paul said in Romans, how many
advantages they had, the oracles, The traditions, the very word
of God in their midst. God is known. But think of the
spiritual here. His name is great in Israel.
And these, I want that to be true here, don't you? Where God's
spiritual Israel dwells in His church. I believe that it is.
I pray that it is here. I want always to apply the truth
of God. to us particularly. And I want
us to examine ourselves in these things. I pray that it's true
here. This is not a repetition. This is two things. Do we know
God here? That's the question that's raised.
Do we know God here? And the second part, is he exalted? Is his name great here? Do we
attribute greatness? Do we consider it? Do we revere
his name? If you know him, you do. These
two go together. If you know him, you're going to reverence
him. In most places that call themselves churches, you know,
God is not reverenced. He's considered a buddy. Me and
God got a good thing going type of deal. He's declared to be
a great optimist. He wants the best, you know,
and hopes the best. And he's a great provider of
opportunities, but he doesn't really get anything done. He
doesn't really do anything. He kind of leaves everything
up to us. After all, he wouldn't want to infringe upon man's sacred
free will. None of his purposes can come
to pass without man's cooperation. And these two things apply to
that. They don't know God. If they did, they'd know better
than that. than to ever say that God ever tried to do anything.
You ever hear anybody say God's trying? They don't know God. You can't read this book and
say that. Not in understanding, not in having some light from
God. And they don't reverence him. That's what Paul said, they
deny the power, the authority, the greatness. Here we declare just what God
said about himself, that he does as he pleases, when he pleases,
the way he pleases, with whom he pleases. He saves whom he
will. He said, my hand's not short
that I can't save you if I want to save you. And we declare that. He has mercy on whom he will
have mercy. We're not afraid of that. Doesn't offend us because
of his grace. He accomplishes what he will.
He uses man to accomplish his purposes when he wants to. But
that's only to show that his greatness in accomplishing his
purpose is in spite of us. We just talked about that giddy
and that's too many. You're going to brag on yourselves
if 3,200 of you win the victory. Somebody knows God and somebody
doesn't. If you look at what's being said
here, I believe we know God here. And let me ask you this, in which
place that we just described, the one where He's declared to
be sovereign and does as he pleases. We're in the place where, you
know, they talk about God trying and God wanting to do this, if
only you'll let him do it and things like that. Where is his
name great? In which of those places? Where
is he glorified? I'll tell you this, whichever
it is, that's his church. That's what happens in Judah.
That's what happens where God's people live. because he's gracious
to them and he reveals himself to them. And the other is anti-Christ. One is saying that the precious
blood of Christ bought nothing but another chance for man to
do the right thing. And you know that's what they're
saying. You know, it's very popular to misrepresent your opponent's
position, you know, in order to set up a straw man and beat
it to death, you know. I'm not misrepresenting their
position. They say that what Christ bought with his precious
blood is another chance for man to do the right thing. And a
long history of chances. But we say that his precious
blood redeemed a people that no man can number. And somebody
knows God. And his name is great there.
His name will be had in reverence. where he's revealed, where he's
known. Verse two, in Salem also is his tabernacle. Not only do
they know God there and fear him, his name is great, but he
lives there with them. Isn't that wonderful? You see,
in his dwelling place, in Zion, in his church, in his holy hill,
that's where he lives, wherever he has revealed himself, Wherever
he is exalted. That's where he tabernacles He
lives among those folks in his presence his life and joy and
peace and light and every good thing This is significant. Now. This is the difference between
Israel and all the other nations. I Believe it was Moses that said You're with us you're with us The point of it all is being
It's having God with us. That's the point of all of it.
And us being with Him. What's the difference? Well,
not much. If God's with us, we're with Him. But think of it this
way. Here now, He's with us. But one of these days, we're
gonna be with Him. You see the difference now? He's with us. Doesn't look like it much to
this world, does it? He's with us, God with us. It's
his very name. But one of these days, we're
gonna be with him because he prayed for it, didn't he? I will,
Father, that those that you've given me be with me. I'm with
them now, but they're gonna be with me one of these days, where
I am. And that's so wonderful. He lives
with us. He lives with his people. David
said, this is my heart's desire, and I'm gonna seek after it.
I wanna dwell in God's house. where he dwells with us. Verse
three, there break he the arrows of the bow, the shield and the
sword in the battle. All right, you see the progression
here. You see the outline. This preaching itself, isn't
it? We know God in his church. We know him. We make much of
his name. We exalt him. He dwells with
us. And here's point four. He protects
us. He keeps us. We sing, save though
the worlds may crumble. Where? Under his precious blood. Our shepherd, he kills the lion
and the bear. David pictured him, didn't he?
Killed the lion and the bear. Lays down his life for the sheep.
He giveth his own life for the sheep. And he said, there's a
result of that. They'll never perish. Not one
hair of our head will fall without him. Verse four. And here's what
we say now in response to all that. You are more glorious and
excellent than the mountains of prey. His name is great and
so we declare him to be great, glorious and excellent. When we say our God is glorious,
we're just telling it like it is. His name is great and it's
great in our midst because we Tell it forth, we publish his
greatness in his gospel. He doeth all things well. Everything
he does is right. That's why we have some peace
and comfort. We know God. We don't question his providential
dealings with us. I know we have a lot of flesh
in us. I know we doubt. I know we worry. But we also
have some peace, which passeth all understanding, that keeps
our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. And we have it because we know
who he is and because he's glorious and excellent. He does all things
well. We say with Job, you can do everything
and no thought of thine can be withholden from thee. We say
with Paul, oh the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and
knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments
and his ways past finding out. He's excellent beyond our ability
to even perceive it. We say with that centurion, Lord,
we know authority when we see it, and we know that all you
have to do is say the word. He's excellent, excellent in
power, glorious in mercy and truth and love. And we, by his
grace, know him. We know him that way. We say with Paul, we're not redeemed
with corruptible things. such as silver and gold, but
with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish
and without spot. We know and we'll tell everybody
that's willing to listen, salvation is of the Lord. He purposed it. He saved us before we ever were.
He purchased it. Salvation is Christ crucified.
He publishes it. The gospel is the power of God
unto salvation. He perpetrates it with his very
hand. He takes hold of us and lifts
us out of the dead. And he perpetuates it, kept by
the power of God unto salvation. Verse 5, the stout-hearted are
spoiled, they have slept their sleep, and none of the men of
might have found their hands. Isn't that an interesting way
to put it? Very skilled warriors, but they can't even find their found their hands when God is
opposed. 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
when once thou art angry? This is a reminder now. David
had real enemies that he faced daily. And this is a reminder
of the spiritual truth that we have real enemies. And also that
we have a real Savior, a real Savior. Just as surely as those
physical battles that David fought, the victory was given him by
God. And he could feel it in his sword hand that God was with
him. We have real enemies and we have
a real Savior. That's what we're learning here
now. And when I say we have a real savior, I'm not repeating this
nonsense that I seem to see everywhere now, where somebody says or writes,
God is real. That's just real inspiring, isn't
it? God is real. Was that in question? Does somebody
need to say that? You ever wonder why the Bible
doesn't say that? There's a reason why the Bible doesn't say that.
That's not a profound thing to say, that's a foolish thing to
say. Faith is not believing that there is a God, a real God. Faith
is believing God. And the Bible is written that
you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,
and that believing you might have life through his name. The
existence of God is not in question and never has been. The issue
is, when are you going to bow to him? Because you're going
to. The issue is when. And that issue is settled by
him. Because you know when you're gonna bow to him? When he reveals
himself to you. When he's pleased to reveal himself
to you, you're gonna bow. And if he does that in the gospel,
you'll be saved. If he doesn't do that, if you
don't find out about him until the day of salvation is over,
you're still gonna bow, but you'll never know his mercy. But back to the exposition here,
we have real enemies and a real savior. And by that, what I do
mean is that he actually saves people. He actually saves his
people, whoever he wants to save, whoever he's pleased to save,
whoever he died for. I lay down my life for my sheep
and they are never going to perish. He doesn't provide salvation.
He doesn't point the way to salvation. He saves. He came to get a job
done. His blood bought something. Somebody,
and he's to be feared, not pitied. Verse eight, thou didst cause
judgment to be heard from heaven. Now you think about that statement
for a second. Judgment, and you know what judgment is. Judgment
is not, as I always say, it's not always wrath. We think of
the judgment of God, we think about him pouring out his wrath,
and certainly that is a judgment of God. But judgment is God on
the throne, Deciding everything When a matter is judged a verdict
is given is it yes or no, is it life or death? He's the one that decides it
he's the judge And he caused judgment to be heard from heaven. When did he do that? the earth
feared and was still and The sun went out for a while. Can
you imagine what that was like? When God arose to judgment to
save all the meek of the earth. That's pretty clear what that's
talking about, isn't it? Judgment was heard from heaven, the earth
feared and was still, we're still talking about it. They were talking
about it before it ever happened. And it happened 2,000 years ago
and we're still talking about it. It's God saving the meek
of the earth. What can that be and who can
that be but Christ and Him crucified? This is the cross. Judgment was
heard from heaven. The justice of God was displayed
in its certainty and in its severity and yet it was displayed to the
saving of the meek. How can God judge the earth and
still save somebody? He's gonna save the meek, all
of them. Blessed are the meek. They're going to inherit the
earth. This is what God did to save us. Thou didst. See those first two words? Thou
didst. He didn't talk about it. He didn't
just talk about it or try to do something. He did it. He arose
to save and he caused his judgment to be heard from heaven when
he poured out his wrath on his only begotten son. That's a display
of judgment like this world has never seen before or since. He poured out His wrath upon
His only begotten Son for our sins, for the sins of His elect,
His people. He laid on Him the iniquity of
us all, all of His sheep. And He punished Him for it, for
that sin. And the punishment, the wages
of sin is death. God killed His own Son. The result is the salvation of
the meek. He was rising up to display judgment
in the earth but also to save the meek and he did both. He
did both. He declared himself the great
judge of the earth and he saved his people. In the same act whom
he did for no he also did predestinate and call and justify and glorify
the scripture says nowhere is there a place in that chain of
grace where he waited on us to do anything he did display his
judgment and he did save the meek. When Christ died on the
cross it was heard from heaven. that God must and shall punish
sin, all sin, every sin, my sin and your sin. When Christ died
on the cross, it was heard from heaven that God is holy. When
Christ died on the cross, it was heard from heaven that God
will have perfect justice in his world. And something else
was heard from heaven that day, that God will be just and justify
the ungodly. Freely through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus And when you hear this from heaven
When God reveals from heaven and that's what he did on the
cross when he When it pleased him to bruise
his son when you hear from heaven in the way in which God declared
it at Calvary There's a conclusion that must be arrived at And this
is our key verse tonight, verse 10. Surely the wrath of man shall
praise thee, and the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain. This is an interesting verse
and one you won't hear a lot. But when you see what God did
at Calvary in declaring his judgment and his salvation, as we saw
in that passage there, you will be forced to conclude that even
the worst that man can do is just gonna serve God's eternal
purposes and redound ultimately to his everlasting praise. You think about the power of
a God who has many enemies, but the very worst that his enemies
can do will accomplish exactly the opposite of what they're
trying to accomplish when they vent their wrath against him.
They try to destroy him, they try to discredit him, they try
to murder him, and everything accomplished exactly the opposite
of what they want. You talk about power. How are you going to harm him?
How are you going to thwart him? It may appear to the world that
Christ's enemies had the upper hand that day. By all accounts,
physically speaking, it would seem so. But when you see Christ
laying down his life for his sheep and giving his soul an
offering for sin, you see in him defeat his enemies in that
very act. He didn't defeat his enemies
in spite of that. That was him defeating them.
You see in the verse three it says he breaks the bow of the
enemy. How did he do that? By giving himself. By dying on
Calvary. You see him in verse five spoiling
the stout hearted and destroying every enemy in that passage of
scripture. How did he do that? He did it at Calvary. That's
where he crushed the serpent's head. The result is that sin
shall no more have dominion over us. There's an enemy gone. Our
sin is our greatest enemy. No more dominion because the
King has defeated it. The result is that Satan's head
is crushed as prophesied way back in Genesis 3. There is another
enemy gone, the great deceiver, our arch enemy, the one who in
the garden deceived us, or deceived Eve. Well, how are you going to describe
it? Satan got his way, he thought there, but Satan had never had
his way. People talk about, you know,
let God have his way. Nobody else has ever had his
way but God, and he had never not had his way. What are you
talking about, let him have his way? The result is that captivity
has led captive. Even death itself is destroyed.
That's the final enemy he said he'll destroy. And all of this
in the very teeth of all of earth's and hell's greatest opposition,
the power of Christ that this reveals, even the wrath of man
shall praise thee. It won't thwart thee. It won't
hinder thee in any way, much less defeat thee. It'll just
praise you. They all said we will rid ourselves
of the one that we hate and in doing so they did what God's
hand and counsel determined before to be done. They were complicit
in accomplishing the very purpose that they set out to thwart.
The exalting of the Savior and the putting of man in the dust
and all of his enemies under his footstool. They unwittingly advanced God's
eternal purpose of grace toward his people in Christ Jesus. And included in that purpose
is that all who oppose him, all who reject him, all who despise
both his law, his person, and his grace, all will be made his
footstool. And we look at that. the invincible
savior now. And we say surely, surely the
wrath of man will praise thee. And if man has anything in his
black heart that will not ultimately redound to the praise of God
and his son, God will not allow it to see fruition. The remainder
of wrath, the wrath that's not gonna praise him, he'll restrain. Oh my, his name is great around
here, isn't it? How can it not be if we know
who he is? He must increase and we must
decrease. Man's wrath literally praised
him in that the words which were the expression of their wrath
were in so many cases by God's providence true of him and exalted
him. We know this is right. When they
scourged and mocked our Lord Jesus Christ, they put that reed
in his hand and the crown of thorns they smashed down upon
his head and they said, hail, king of the Jews. The wrath of
man was praising him that day. Because that's exactly who he
is. God caused them in spite of themselves to put it over
his head as he hung on the cross in three languages. Can you imagine
that? They said, in order to defame
him, this man eateth with publicans and sinners. That's just praising
him. They didn't want to praise him,
but they did. Imagine the Son of God, that God the Son would
stoop so low. as to sit at the table with a
sinner like me. Even in the agony of betrayal
and regret, Judas was forced to say, I've betrayed the innocent
blood. The innocent blood. When Judas met him in the garden
to betray him and greeted him with a kiss, he greeted him this
way vocally in Matthew 26, 49. Hail, master. He couldn't help himself. How
are you going to address the son of God? He is the master. Do you know that God arranged it
so that his enemies could not even say his name without announcing
him victorious? They said it in disgust and contempt
and distaste. Even the demons that possessed
that man in Matthew 8, they said it this way, what have we to
do with thee? Jesus, thou son of God. You know what they're
saying? He's gonna save his people from their sins. That's why his
name was called Jesus. You can't say it, no matter how
you say it, without praising him. When they accused Peter,
they said, you were also with this Jesus of Nazareth. What a name. What a name. You can't even say it in wrath
without praising. But that's not the extent of
the meaning of our text. All the acts of man's wrath will
praise the Lord. We've seen that the ultimate
act of man's wrath and depravity did nothing but further his purpose
and exalt him so high. Nowhere is God in all of his
persons, in all of his offices, in all of his attributes exalted
like at Calvary. And everything that his enemies
did there just lifted his name even higher. Everything man does in defiance
of God God will overrule for his own
glory and grace just like it Calvary All of the acts of man's wrath
will praise the Lord and the ones that do not he'll restrain
them When that wicked man you think about this let me ask you
two questions about that that King Nebuchadnezzar wicked proud. Oh he his decree was if anybody
worships anybody else I I'll kill them. And of course the Lord had three
people there that wouldn't bow. You remember what he said to
Elijah that there were 3,000 that wouldn't bow their knee
to Baal? Because he said, I've reserved
them. According to the election of grace, there's a remnant. And that's who these three were.
They wouldn't bow their knee. to that false god, and that's
why, same reason. Same reason those 3,000 wouldn't,
because God, according to his loving, powerful, eternal grace,
had reserved them. And so, let me ask you a couple
of questions about that. Why did he cast them into the
fiery furnace? Did he have anything personal
against them? No, you know why I did it? They said, we're going
to worship our God. They said, there's just one God and we're going
to worship Him. Whatever you do. Doesn't matter what you do.
And He'll deliver us from the fiery furnace. And if He doesn't,
we're still not going to worship your God. We're going to worship
Him whether He kills us or saves us. And he hated that God. Nebuchadnezzar
didn't want anybody worshiping that God. The wrath of man against God.
And what was the result? God was glorified. That's what
we're talking about tonight. You can see example after example
after example of that in the scriptures, the wrath of those.
King Darius didn't want to put Daniel and the lions in, but
everybody else pretty much did, didn't they? The wrath of man.
What was the result of that? Oh, praise God. He's able to
deliver his people from the lions. What will God not allow? The
remainder of wrath he'll restrain. What is that? Well, no weapon
formed against his people will prosper. Nothing. Nothing will. Physical weapon, spiritual weaponry,
it doesn't matter. They tried to kill him in their
wrath against him before his time and he walked through the
midst of them because his time had not yet come, his hour was
not yet come. He restrained them there. Nothing
will be allowed except that which glorifies him That's how a king
acts now How much of your wrath in your lifetime how much of
your wrath and let's face it now We weren't born loving God
I've always loved God people say that's too long It's too
long How much of our wrath has he
restrained in our lifetime? For our good, but also for his
glory, for his praise, for his ultimate exaltation. This verse
declares him very simply, very powerfully to be the sovereign
king of the universe. Invincible, he can't be thwarted,
none can stay his hand. Or saying to him, what doest
thou? He works all things after the counsel of his own will.
And when he is most greatly opposed, and it looks like the most damage
is being done to him or his ministry, that's him working all things
after the counsel of his own will. To exalt himself, to further
his kingdom, and to bless his sheep. And when you see him like that
now, When you see him like that, you see how this psalm, it really
has one theme, doesn't it? David able to make that statement,
he can make the first one he made. We know God around here.
By his grace, we know him. And his name is great around
here. Oh, how I desire that. In this wicked, horrible, black world. May it be said here, we know
God and His name is great. We reverence Him. And I'll tell you this, when
you can see Him that way, you'll say the next part of our text
too, in verse 11, vow and pay unto the Lord your God. Let all
that be round about Him bring presence unto Him. Isn't that
beautiful? You don't see I don't know that
we've ever talked about this. Bring presence to God. Bring
presence to Him. I had to think about that a little
while and see in the Word of God what
that was about. And look how He's described,
let all that be round about Him, all that know Him, all that reverence
Him, all whom He protects, everything we've seen in this text, let
those ones bring presence unto him, here's the description,
that ought to be feared. He is to be had in reverence
of all them that are about him. What is a present? It's not an
obligation, is it? If you came to this service tonight
because you felt obligated to do it, you came for the wrong
reason. And I did too. A present's not an obligation. Not a real present now. All of
our obligations to God are met by Christ. And if they're not,
then they're not met. It's not by constraint. Used to come to our office, you
know, and ask us first if we wanted to give to a certain charity. And then if you just said no,
And then it got ugly. And then they'd come around to
your desk and start trying to force you to do it. And I would
just, well that made me so mad. That used to make me so mad. I never gave them a dime. That
might give you a hint of who they were trying to give me to
contribute to. Not a dime. You do whatever you
want to do. I will not give that way. A present is not my constraint. No, it's an expression of love. It's an expression of the heart,
a heart that cares and loves and desires. It's something that's
given at some cost to the giver. There's never been a gift that
didn't cost anything. Really, something now, time,
something. And there shouldn't be. David
said, I'm not gonna worship the Lord with that which cost me
nothing. It does cost something, except, and yet the giver considers
it a privilege. That's what a gift is now. If
you give it begrudgingly, it's not a gift. And let me tell you, you know
this is right. We don't have anything that God
needs. But that's not the point, is it? That's not the point.
When you give a present to me, it may well be something that
I need, maybe not, but either way, even if it's something that
I need, you know what's more important and more special and
more precious to me than the fulfillment of that need? The
fact that you care enough to give it. And I don't understand all about
this, I don't know why in the world the Lord would even take
anything from us at all. We're the takers, he's the giver.
But I know this, he said in Song of Solomon 4.10, how fair is
thy love. Speaking to his church, how fair
is thy love. How much better than wine is
thy love. We're precious to him. And everything
that we do for Him, He delights in it. I just wonder how much
we actually do for Him. That's just for Him. And you
know it's true, there's a sense in which we don't do anything
for Him. Because as I've said to you so many times, when we
do something for Him, it's really Him doing something for us. We
know that's right. But I'm not sure he sees it that
way. And I don't understand that. But everything we do out of love for him and faith
in him is precious to him. I see that in the word of God.
And so may we, by his grace, not love him in word only, but
in deed. Let's pray together.