Psalm 65 this evening. Lord's gracious to keep calling
us over and over. I like those words, as at other
times. Tonight he'll call, he'll send
his word forth as at other times. But I pray with our brother Jimmy
that the Lord will open our ears that we might hear, make us willing
to hear, anxious to hear, Psalm 65 now, I'm just going
to read the first four verses, and I want us to think about
the overall theme here, the picture that's
being painted here. We'll look at some particular
words and some particular phrases, and I pray the Lord will teach
us some lessons in those, but I want us to see the general
picture here first, in these first four verses. There are
some things that are going to happen with regard to God. There
are some things that are going to happen with regard to us,
and there's a reason for them in this brief passage of Scripture. Praise waiteth for thee, O God. God's going to be praised. In
Zion, in the church, among your people, in your city, and unto
thee shall the vow God's going to be served. He's going to be
praised. He's going to be served. O thou,
verse 2, that hearest prayer unto thee shall all flesh come. He's going to be worshipped.
He's going to be heard. He's going to be trusted. He's
going to be worshipped. All flesh is going to come to
you. Alright. And then look at verse 3. Iniquities
prevail against me. As for our transgressions, thou
shalt purge them away, away. And then here's us, 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. God is praised, God is served,
God is worshiped, God is trusted, his people are blessed, blessed
is the man, they're brought, he's gonna cause you to approach
him, and they are bountifully provided for. And then right
in the middle of all of that language there, it tells us why. God gets glory. We get great
blessing. And there's one thing that's
the great cause of it all. And what do you suppose that
is? Well, it's Christ crucified. Well, wait a minute, Chris, I
didn't see the cross there in that verse, didn't you? I bet
you did. I bet you did. In verse three, Iniquities prevail against me
as for our transgressions God's going to purge them away He's going to purge them away
Everything in that passage revolves around that Christ and him Crucified
Now I use the the term or phrase or whatever it is, Christ crucified
quite a bit. And I don't want it to just become
a catchphrase with us. But we need to understand that
it's Christ in his redemptive character that we preach, that
is the cause and source of every blessing from God. And as Paul said, he's all and
in all. And particularly in that character,
as the crucified Lamb of God. Now let's look at, see that in
this passage. Praise waiteth for thee, O God,
in Sion. God in His church, in His city,
in the place of His dwelling, He dwells among His people, and
they're going to praise Him. What are they going to praise
Him for? What's the theme of our praise? We know what it is, don't we?
We see it in the book of Revelation. We see it all through this book.
This passage here is used, of course, to teach the doctrine
of election. And there's no question that
we see the electing grace of God here. Blessed is the man
whom thou choosest and causes to approach unto thee. But I
want us to see here that the key verse in this passage is
verse 3. What is the subject, first of
all, of the praises in Zion? Praise waiteth on God. What does
that look like? Well, Revelation 5-9. We praise him for the same reason
that we're going to throughout eternity. They sung a new song
saying thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals
thereof for thou wast slain. And what was the result of that?
Him being slain doesn't have potential results. It has certain
and amazing and wonderful results. When you were slain, you redeemed
us to God by your precious blood. Or as our text puts it, he purged
our sins away. Same thing. And out of every
kindred and tongue and people and nation. That's in our text
too. All flesh, didn't it say? and
has made us unto our God kings and priests and we shall reign
on the earth. And I beheld and I heard the
voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and
the elders and the number of them was 10,000 times 10,000
and thousands of thousands saying with a loud voice, worthy is
the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and
strength and glory and honor and blessing. Praise waiteth
for thee, O God. How come? Because, as for our
iniquities, thou shalt purge them away. Thou hast purged them
away. They are purged away by the eternal
blood of God's Lamb that takes away sin. That's what we praise
Him for. And I'll tell you this, God is
served. Vows are made unto Him, and they're performed. Notice
that it doesn't just say we're gonna make some vows to God.
We're gonna do them. We're gonna perform them. Why? Second Corinthians 5.14, the
love of Christ constraineth us. His love constrains us to make
promises to God. That is in the scripture now.
We vow vows unto God. I don't think we should be real
flippant about that or real ready to do a whole lot of that. Be
very careful about that. But study that in the word sometime.
We do. claim to be servants of the Most
High God, and we want to serve Him faithfully. And we are going
to. But why are we gonna do it? What's
our motivation? The love of Christ constraineth
us. How come? Because we judge this way. This
is the way we reckon things. That if He died for all of us,
it was because we were dead. We had no other hope. And we
reckon this, that He died for all so that they which live by
his death, we who have life because of his sin atoning death, spiritual
life, eternal life, that we should not henceforth live unto ourselves
but unto him which died for us and rose again. Are you gonna do anything for
God? Oh, I know we don't talk about our work. They're not worth
talking about. But I'll tell you this, I wouldn't say, no,
I'm not going to do anything for God, would you? I'm not going
to worship him. I'm not going to serve him. I'm
not going to be a witness for him. Of course we are. And we're
going to perform those things if we do, because he died for
us. And more importantly, not only
Is Christ our motivation and our example in our performance?
I want to be like him in my vows unto God and in my service unto
God. But he's our fulfillment of this.
Never forget that. We don't keep our vows in the
ultimate sense. We have never done anything good.
You understand that. Christ himself is the only one
who ever made a promise to God and kept it perfectly and fully.
And so He's our fulfillment of that. He did it as our representative.
You know what the ultimate fulfillment of the ultimate vow to God is?
When He by Himself purged our sins. He purged them away. You
see how everything here revolves around verse 3? It revolves around
Christ on the cross. Look at verse 2. O thou that hearest prayer, unto
thee shall all flesh come. I like the way David describes
God here. Oh, you that hear me. You that
hear me. You that care at all to even
hear me. And you that can do something
about it. But I want us to focus on our theme here. We will praise
God, we will serve God in here, When we have served him perfectly
in Christ, that's most important. And here, we're going to come
to him. We're going to come to him. How does that happen now? Think about a verse that you
know very well. John 6, 44. Think about this
verse. No man can come to me except
the Father which hath sent me draw him. And I'll raise him
up at the last day when he does. Now that verse goes right along
with our text, doesn't it? Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causest. We're not gonna come to him until
that happens. So these texts go together very
well, but don't, yes. This shows the inability, we
teach always from that verse John 644, the inability of the
sinner, and rightly so we teach that. But don't miss this most
obvious thing here. When God does draw a sinner,
when God does move a sinner, when he does by his almighty
grace make something happen in the case of a sinner, what does
he do? Where does he draw him to? To
Christ. No man comes to me The key word
is me when the verse is considered this way. No man can come to
me except the Father. Draw him. That's the ultimate
goal. We got to get to God. And to
get to God, we got to get to his son. He's the way. He's the
door. And how's that happen? God brings
us. God chooses us and causes. He draws us. He takes us from
where we are and brings us to his son. There's verse three
again. It's Christ crucified. Notice
we're coming to the one who actually hears us. Thou that hearest our
prayers, the one that can do something about our problem.
Verses two and three together here are important now. O thou
that hearest prayer and purges our sin away, what would he be
hearing us concerning? What is our prayer? What is our
cry? What is our need? Our sins. Our sins, Lord. If you will, you can make me
clean. He hears that. He hears that and says, I will.
That's the prayer that he hears. Psalm 86.3, David said, Be merciful
unto me, O Lord, for I cry unto thee daily. What are you crying
for, David? Mercy! Be merciful unto me. Have mercy on me, the sinner. It is our cry for mercy that
God hears. And how does he answer? By purging
our iniquities. By bringing us to his Son, putting
us in his Son, and him in us. Of him are you in Christ. And
Christ in you is the hope of glory. You're in him and he's
in you. It's Christ crucified that we
come to. And when I picture that in my mind, what picture do you
see? Us coming to Christ crucified, us coming to the one who purges
our sins away. I see old doubt in Thomas, don't
you? There's the Lord Jesus Christ showing his wounded hands. Now, the Lord had just hours
before been crucified for Thomas's sins. Just a few hours before that.
And here he is standing there showing his bleeding hands and
side. And what does he say to Thomas? Come here. Come here. That's what our text
is. They're all going to come to
you. All flesh is going to come out of
every kindred, tribe, nation, tongue under heaven. Come to
Christ, the crucified Son of God, the one who is able to purge
sins away. What do we come to him for? I
need my sins purged away. God, be merciful to me, the sinner. Be propitious to me at the mercy
seat. Why do we come to him? John 12,
32, he said, if I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all
men unto me. You see how it's Christ lifted
up like the serpent was lifted up in the wilderness, made in
the likeness of sinful flesh, a serpent of brass on a pole,
but the Son of God on a cross, made in the likeness of sinful
flesh and for sin, and he condemned sin in the flesh. And he said,
when I'm lifted up, and when I come in that character, I'm gonna draw everybody to me,
all my people, every one of them. So it's Christ crucified all
the way around. He says this in this way, spiritually
speaking, As he did to Thomas, come here. He says that to all
of his people. Come, come here. And he says
it in that same character as the crucified victorious redeemer. He says, come here. And as David
said, we're coming. We're all coming. And then see
the effect of his perfect satisfactory sacrifice for our sins upon us.
Now that is included there in us coming to him, but that's
talking about everybody, that's talking about God, all flesh
is going to come. But look, he purges our sins
and what is the result as far as we're concerned? It has a
direct result upon us. We see the result unto God, God
gets glory, doesn't he? Christ as the Redeemer, the crucified,
sin-bearing Redeemer, God gets glory. Wasn't it when he was
going to the cross when he said, the hour has come, glorify me
that I may glorify you. That's how God in all of his
persons gets glory, through Christ crucified. Here's the result
upon us, blessed is the man. Blessed. God's praised, he's
served, He's worshipped, he's trusted, he's believed on, and
we're blessed. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest. Now David said we're coming to
God. The God who can and will hear us regarding the purging
of our sins. And here's why we're coming.
Because he causes us to. He causes us to. Why does he cause us to come?
Because we're his chosen ones. Why are we his chosen ones? Why
did he choose us? Because he loved us with an everlasting
love. Why does he love us? Well, I
can't fully answer that, but I know this, he loves us in Christ,
crucified. You see how we, Now maybe you're doing the math,
and maybe you're wondering, how can Christ's sacrificial, sin-atoning
death, which occurred in time, it's a historical fact that took
place in time, how can that be the cause of God's electing love
for us which he bestowed upon us in eternity? Nothing in time
can cause something in eternity, can it? Well, here's the answer
to that question. Though Christ died on a cross
at Calvary on a day in time, his sacrifice, his atonement
for sin, his precious blood is eternal. It's timeless. He's
the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. John saw the lamb
as it had been slain on the throne, didn't he? Where was he looking?
He wasn't looking into time. He got a glimpse of eternity
that day. If he was the lamb as it had
been slain when John saw him, then that's who he was before
the world was made. He hadn't changed. He hadn't
changed. What happens in time now is vital
and necessary, but it does not change who Christ is. He's always
been the lamb as it had been slain. The lamb worthy of all praise
and the reason he has been worthy of all praise has not changed.
For thou was slain and has redeemed us to God. That's why we praise
in you. That's why we serve in you. That's
why we come to you. And that's why we're blessed.
Because he was slain for us. So the source and cause of all
blessedness from God to the sinner is Christ and him crucified,
always has been. The Lord told his disciples,
he said, don't glory in the fact that you've been given power
to cast out devil. They said, even the devils are
subject under us. He said, don't glory in that,
glory in this. Glory in the fact that your names
are written down in heaven. And do you know where they're
written? In the Lamb's book of life. That's where they're written.
In the book of life of the sacrificial Lamb of God that takes away our
sins. Or as our text puts it, purges
them away. God forbid that I should glory
save in Christ crucified. How blessed we are in Christ
Jesus, chosen in him. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest. We're chosen in Christ. Second
Thessalonians 2.13, we're bound to give thanks always to God
for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from
the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the
spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto he called you by our
gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus. We're not bound to congratulate
you for making a decision for Jesus. We're bound to thank God
for choosing you. Now, look at the next part of
our blessedness in this verse. He caused us. He chose us in
Christ from before the foundation of the world and he caused us
to approach unto him. There's a song that says, oh
happy day that fixed my choice on thee my savior and my God.
Well, may this glowing heart rejoice until its rapture's all
abroad. Thank God he causes us to approach,
because if he does not, we ain't coming. There's nothing clearer
in this book than that. All we like sheep have gone astray. And that's what sheep do. Do
you know why? It says in our Lord's parable in Luke 15 of
the lost sheep and the lost coin and the prodigal son. In the part about
the sheep and the shepherd, it says that one of his sheep is
lost, and it says the shepherd leaves the ninety and nine, and
here's a direct quote, goeth after it. You know why it says
that? Because the shepherd knows the
nature of sheep and he knows that sheep ain't ever coming
back. He's gonna have to go get it. That's what David's blessing
God for and saying, blessed is me and all who he sets his love
and affection, his electing grace upon and brings to himself. If he loves you, he's not gonna
let you go. I don't care what this religious world teaches.
Our God's love is not that weak. If he loves you, he's gonna have
you. He's gonna have you. What David is saying here, in
effect, is this. God chose me, and then he caused
me to choose him. Isn't that what he's saying?
Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and then what's me approaching
him? It's me choosing him, but he caused it. He chose me, and I chose him,
and both are of him. That's what me coming to him
is. By God-given faith, Moses chose the reproach of Christ,
and so do we all who believe on him and come to him. I can't
come to Christ unless the Father draws me to him, but he does.
And I do. He still is drawing and I'm still
following. I'm still pressing toward the
mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
How does that happen? The same way I started coming
to him. I'm coming to him now the same
reason I started coming to him, because he caused me to approach. How does he do that? Against
our will? Are we fighting it and kicking
and screaming the whole way? Well, we may fight it for a little
while. But the way he causes us to approach unto him is he
causes Christ to be irresistible to us. Now you think about this. God
had to have me. That's why he chose me. He had
to have me. I don't understand that. I don't know why he did,
but I know he did. Because I see what he did to get me. He had
to have me. And I'll tell you this, he's
made it so that I have to have him too. Got to have him. Now
this is how God does this now. It's not a robotic obedience,
me coming to him. It's love. And his choosing of
me was the same. It wasn't random and cold. Paul
said that the purpose of God according to election might stand,
so that that purpose of God according to election might stand. God
said, I love you. His love for me is his choice
of me. And my coming to him is also
falling in love. Now in Romans chapter eight there,
that golden chain of grace, it begins how? For whom he did foreknow,
That's not an awareness of facts about me that caused him to predestinate
me to be like his son. He's not just aware of some truth
about me. He predetermined everything that would happen to me and that
I would become everything I would become because he loved me that
much. That's why he did that. And me
coming to Christ, it's not a decision. It's not a desire to go to heaven
when I die. It's me not being able to live
without him anymore. That's what it is. I've got to have him. To know
him indeed is to love him. And to love him is to take the
kingdom of heaven by storm in order to have him. The last part of my blessedness
is in the rest of verse four. I'm going to live with him. I'm
going to be with him because he loves me and had to have me.
He's going to have me forever and I'm going to have him forever.
My beloved is mine and I'm his and it's always going to be that
way. From now on, I'm going to go live with him and I'm going
to enjoy all of his glory and all of his goodness forever.
You see that there? And this too is a direct result
of what he did for me at Calvary. He said, I'm going to prepare
a place for you. That's Calvary. And then he told us the result
of what he did at Calvary. I'm going to come and receive
you. You're going to be mine. You're going to be with me. I've
redeemed you. I've purchased you. I've bought
you with my blood and I'm going to come take possession of you.
Receive you unto myself that where I am Oh Verse three You see how it's
the key to everything and how this truth is the key to this
whole book if you miss the victorious crucified sin-bearing Completely
and fully satisfactory sin offering son of God Then this book will
be utter nonsense to you It's a closed book. It'll be completely
mysterious It'll be foolishness But if God brings you to the
place where when you look into this book You see that it's a
hymn book An H-I-M book. It's a book of redeeming love. The whole word of God is open
to you. Christ is the key to the word of God. Now David said, my iniquities
prevailed against me. Oh, isn't that true? I am ruined. I am deeply and devastatingly
ruined, utterly and completely. People say, well I don't know
if I believe in total depravity, I don't know if I'd go that far.
Total depravity, I don't go near far enough. Nobody's ever been
able to state it adamantly enough. Dogmatically enough, how wretched
and vile and utterly hopeless we are before God. My iniquities
have ravaged me. They have utterly prevailed against
me, but not against him. Not against him. I have no hope
of winning this battle myself, but the Lord Jesus Christ did
something about it. He purged my sins away, the only
way that sins can be purged. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission. There's no putting away of sin.
Unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood. Who are these arrayed in white?
Well, their robes have been washed in the blood. Christ did something
about it. He said to me in the gospel,
though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.
And then he showed me how that can be true. More than that,
he showed me that it was true, that he'd already washed them.
He showed me what he would what he had done for me when he shed
that precious blood. He washed my sins away with it.
He redeemed me. He obtained eternal redemption
for me with that blood. And that's my hope, that's my
salvation. I just didn't know it until he showed me. And that's
what he does in the gospel. And because of what he did for
me, I'm not just blessed, But as the last part of verse four
describes there, I am blessed with every blessing there is. His presence, all of his provision,
his pure and adoring love for me bestowed. His love is not
just a feeling or an emotion. The fact that he loves me means
that I have every good thing that can be had. I wish my love was like that,
but it's not. But his is. Blessed with every blessing there
is. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Praise
waits for him, doesn't it? We're gonna bless his name. That's
what Paul's doing in Ephesians 1 through 8, praising his name. What for? Well, he's blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. According as he hath chosen us
in him this reads almost like our text doesn't it? Praise waits
for him what for? Well, he purged our sins away
according as he has chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world that we should be holy and without blame before
him our sins being purged away Blessed in Christ the one who
purged them In love he predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will
to the praise of the glory of his grace. That's how our psalm
started. And that's how this whole thing ends now too. It
ends with us praising him for his precious blood. To the praise of the glory of
his grace wherein he hath made us accepted. We're accepted of
God. How in the world can that be?
My sins are purged away. And I'm perfectly holy and righteous
in Christ. Accepted in the beloved. The cause and source of all blessedness. is the son of God who lives and
was dead. And behold, he's alive forevermore.
Let's pray.