Alright brethren, let's go back
here to Psalm 103. I love that last verse, that
last sentence really of Acts 2. And the Lord added to the
church daily. We got wasps flying around. We got a tree falling over. Alright, Psalm 103, I'm not going
to read it again. Do you know that there's only,
there's not one single request in this psalm, not one single
petition. Psalm 101 they believe was when David began
his reign as king. And then we saw Psalm 102 was
the trials of the afflicted when they're overwhelmed and with
the Lord works. And then most believe Psalm 103
was written by David when he was old. But they put in here
to show us this is what the Lord keeps working in His people.
And the longer He works this, the more our song and our prayer
ceases to be full of petitions and becomes full of praise. Just
thankful for Him. Just thankful for Him. What do
you need? Nothing. Nothing. Have Him. What else
do you need? In the first five verses, David
praised the Lord for the Lord's mercy to him personally. That
blessed ongoing renewal. And now in verse 6, he praises
the Lord for His mercy to the church, to us, to His people. Each time the Lord renews us,
He's making us remember. He's constantly working good
toward us. That's what struck me about that
last sentence in Acts 2, and the Lord added to the church
daily such as should be saved. He's still doing that. He's still
working all things for good in this world for his church, and
he's adding to the church daily such as should be saved. It would
be great if it was today that there's some that should be saved.
First of all, as we go through this, through these trials and
things, and he renews us, he's teaching us to know and believe
that our Lord's working righteousness and judgment for his people.
He says in verse 6, the Lord executeth righteousness and judgment
for all that are oppressed. He made known his ways unto Moses,
his acts unto the children of Israel. The Lord alone is responsible
for executing righteousness and judgment. And what I mean, he's
the one, if righteousness and judgment is executed, he gets
the glory. That's what I mean. And he's
working all things that's just and right for his people. And
we see this in Israel. The example he gives, here's
the children of Israel in Egyptian bondage. And everything about
how the Lord dealt with them pictures Christ. We see glimpses
of Christ all through the Lord's dealing with him. And it was
judgment and righteousness. That's the only way he deals
with his people in Christ. We see it in his dealing with
Moses. Pharaoh, you remember in the Egyptians, Pharaoh put
taskmasters over him. and made their life bitter with
hard bondage. That's a foreshadowing of what it was like when Christ
came the first time. The Pharisees were the taskmasters.
The devil was the taskmaster, and the Pharisees were doing
his bidding, making God's poor people oppressed with hard bondage. and this you that are oppressed
you if there's any of his people and that's who he's speaking
to specifically God's elect and it represents the oppressor is
The devil, he entered the garden and Adam sinned and brought us
into the curse of the law and it represents the devil and his
seed. It represents the world and the
vain religionists and whatever and whoever is being used to
try to turn us from Christ to us and it's even our own old
man of sin is the oppressor. The Lord's gonna save his people
from the oppressor. But when they were there and
they were in that bitterness and that bondage, the Lord heard
their cry. Remember in Exodus, he heard
their cry and he said he would. Pharaoh had said, given an order,
this was a different Pharaoh that didn't know Joseph, he gave
an order to kill all the male babies. That's what went on when
Christ was born. Remember? Herod killing all the
babies. And that was the same thing then
as it was when Christ came. That was the devil trying to
prevent Christ from coming into the world. That's what was happening
in Pharaoh's day. And yet the Lord put his fear
in the hearts of these Hebrew midwives and they saved the male
babies. And one of those babies was Moses. And he pictures Christ, he's
the deliverer that was coming to the world as an infant. Moses
came into the world as an infant, a miraculous birth. Moses was
to an extent because he was spared when Pharaoh was trying to kill
him. And she hid him for three months and she couldn't hide
him anymore. Can you imagine taking your three-month-old child?
This is trusting the Lord. She took her three-month-old
child and she made an ark of bulrushes and she put that child
in the Nile River. in the Nile River. I wouldn't
put a child in a river in South Arkansas, much less in the Nile
River. I mean, there's every kind of
thing in the Nile River. And let him go. And the Lord
protected him. The Lord had Pharaoh's daughter
take Moses out of the water, found him, and she carried him
into Pharaoh's house with all that provision and all those
riches. And she said, I'm going to need
a Hebrew midwife to come and nurse this child. And the Lord
put it in her heart to call Moses' mother. And Moses' mother came
in and nursed the baby, nursed her child, her own child. So
Moses got the finest education and everything he needed. everything
he needed. God working, executing righteousness
and judgment, delivering his people out of the hand of the
oppressor. And then when Moses was grown up, he knows that he's
going to be the deliverer. And he saw an Egyptian smiting
one of his Hebrew brethren, and Moses looked around, nobody wasn't
looking, so he killed that Egyptian. And the next day, he sees two
of his Hebrew brethren arguing. And Moses thought they would
know that he's the deliverer, and he went up to him. He's a
young man. He went up to him and tried to
break it up. And they said, who may be a prince and a judge over
us? Isn't that exactly what the Pharisees
said when Christ came? We'll not have this man reign
over us. They said to him, do you intend to kill us like you
did the Egyptians yesterday? And Moses realized they knew
about him. Pharaoh set out to kill him and
Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to the wilderness. Now, that's
the Old Covenant version. That's guilty Moses under the
law. But Christ came forth. Christ
was his righteousness. Christ came forth, laid down
his life for Moses. And you know how God records
that same act under the New Covenant, under the covenant of grace?
Hebrews 11 verse 4 says, By faith Moses, when he was come to years,
refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing
rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy
the pleasures of sin for a season. How could God say that about
Moses? That's not what we saw in Moses. We saw Moses kill an
Egyptian and hear that Pharaoh knows about it and he runs away
from Egypt. How could God say that's what
Moses did? Because that's what Christ did.
Christ was tempted of the devil. And he refused to partake with
him. And he served God faithfully.
He esteemed the reproach of his people more than all the riches
that the devil said, I'll give you if you'll just bow down and
worship to me. And this is a description of Moses in Christ and his righteousness. And this is so of you, believer,
if you're in Christ. He esteemed the reproach of Christ's
greater riches than the treasures in Egypt. He had respect unto
the recompense of the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt." That's
what God said. Not fearing the wrath of the
king. In Exodus, he fled because he feared, Pharaoh knew about
it, but he didn't flee fear in the wrath of the king, God said.
For he endured as seeing him who is invisible. How can that
be said of Moses? Because Christ endured the cross,
despising the shame because of the joy set before him, the recompense
of the reward, and he sat down at God's right hand and God said,
that's what my son Moses did, right there. That's God executing righteousness
and judgment for the oppressed. God sent Moses out to the desert.
That's where God taught Moses to trust the Lord. He goes out
there and the Lord gave him a bride and made him a shepherd of his
father-in-law's sheep. He pictured Christ our shepherd
who came down to save his bride from our sins. That's what he
came for. And at the set time to favor
Moses, you remember in Psalm 102, the Lord said, he'll hear
the cry of the oppressed and at the set time, he will favor
him. It's the set time to favor him.
And at the set time, Christ appeared to Moses in the burning bush
and revealed, I am that I am. Now you're going to go forth
and preach my word. He made Moses a shepherd of his sheep. The
Great Shepherd did. And he went forth preaching God's
Word. Here's Moses. He said, I got
a speech impediment. I can't even talk. And the Lord
said, I'll send Aaron with you. And all that was a picture of
was Christ being with Moses. Moses did all the talking. Aaron
didn't do any talking. Most of the time. And he went
forth and he spoke the Word of the Lord to Pharaoh. Big, bad,
blustering Pharaoh. That's not going to bow to anybody. And God provided a lamb, and
he passed over the firstborn in Israel, and that's how he
delivered them out. Picturing Christ, the prophet, priest,
and king, our Passover lamb who sacrificed for us, how God delivered
us out. And God, Christ led them in the
cloud, he led them in the pillar of fire, he provided for them
all through the wilderness, and he delivered each and every one
into the land of Canaan. There's not one promise God made,
even to the natural children of Israel. Those natural promises
he made concerning earthly things, he fulfilled all those. And it's
a picture of our Lord Jesus making good on every covenant promise
he's promised his people to save his people from our sins and
deliver us into heaven's Canaan. So we see in Moses and Israel
the Lord executing righteousness and judgment for all that are
oppressed. He's still doing that today. He's still doing that
today. He did it then, and I don't doubt
at all that if we could see in our lives the things that our
Lord is working, and one day maybe He'll show this to us when
we're in glory, how much of it shattered Him and all His works
of grace and everything He's doing just like the old covenant,
lives of those old covenant saints did. Not to mention the fact he's
just actually working righteousness and judgment for us in this earth.
Everything he's doing. And then let me show you a second
thing. Remember this, child of God,
that no matter how the Lord corrects you, He's not dealt with you after
your sins, He's dealt with you in mercy. He said in verse 8,
the Lord is merciful and gracious, He's slow to anger, plenteous
in mercy, He'll not always chide or chasten, neither will He keep
anger forever. That's added, it might be better
to say He won't keep chastening forever. He's not dealt with
us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
And you know, you have to remember David's been, he's writing this,
David's being used to pen these words from our Lord. And you
think about David, Lord chastened David for his sin with Bathsheba. And the Lord told David, the
sword's never gonna leave your house, David. your wives are
going to, men are going to steal them and sleep with them right
before everybody. And his own son Absalom brought
so much shame on him. And David spent more time out
in the wilderness than he spent in a palace. Now David's writing
this, and David's saying to me and you, Everything we read that
David suffered, David said, it was all God's mercy and His goodness
to me. Every bit of it was God dealing
with me in plenteous mercy, not giving me what my sins earned. That's what it all was. Rather
than that's what He's doing with us every day. I mean, if God
gave us what, if He gave us what just a fleeting thought of sin
deserves, We could. We could. Look to the cross.
It's where we see it. How can God show us grace and
plenteous mercy in righteousness and judgment? How can He be just
to do this? Christ bore the cross. He became
the despised thing on that cross. Every sin sins we don't even know about,
sins that we've forgotten about, sins that we just didn't think
was that big a deal. Every sin, every transgression,
not just for Adam's one transgression, for many transgressions, all
the sins of all his people, our Lord bore that, the shame of
it, before God who knew all. and the Lord removed his presence.
He removed, he forsook him there and he suffered that everlasting,
eternal death we'd have suffered. Please try to get this. I know
I say this all the time. This is the best news. And I know I heard this for years
and it didn't just set in on me. The Lord didn't make it set
in on me like he has, you know, in the past few. But it's so,
brethren. We really did die in Christ. I mean, we died in Christ. God's not saying it's as if you
did. We died in Christ. All God's
elect died in Christ. The love poured out on us in
Christ. Paul said, I am crucified with
Christ. And when Christ went in that
grave, our body of sin before God went in the grave, buried. But when Christ came out, we
came out with Him. a new man. I hope you'll read
that article I put in the bulletin about when Elisha and Moses were
with him in glory on the Mount of Transfiguration and they talked
about the decease that he shall accomplish. That word decease
is exodus and accomplish means fulfill. And that's what he did. He accomplished, he fulfilled
the exodus of his people. He brought us, just like that's
what Exodus pictures, he brought us out of the bondage of the
devil and sin and the curse of the law, even the curse of our
own sinful flesh, he brought us out from that by his death
on the cross, his burial, and then when he rose, we were We
were still dead or not even born yet, and Scripture says, He raised
us up together with Him to sit together with Him. That in the
ages to come, and one day you were born, all these ages later,
and then He calls you to be born again, that He might reveal His
kindness and His mercy and His grace to you through Christ Jesus. That's a blessed... Oh my! That's what he's done for us. And we see it in all his mercy
toward David. It was the only thing to do.
It was the just thing to do is to be merciful. Because justice
is satisfied. Justice is satisfied for his
people. They're righteous. And the just
thing is to be merciful to them. And we see that when we read
these psalms and hear all these psalms that David was used to
pen because of all these things he suffered. If he hadn't suffered
those things, he wouldn't have wrote those psalms. And I'm telling
you, the more you read these psalms, the more you're going
to find, I don't care what you're going through, if you go to a
psalm, you'll find it. And you'll find a blessing in
it. And we wouldn't have that if David didn't go through that.
And David said every bit of that was God being merciful to me,
plenteous in mercy, withholding from me everything that I deserved
because it was just to be merciful to him. And that's how real Christ's
blood is efficacious as the surety from the foundation of the world.
God was just to show David mercy even before Christ went to the
cross. Look here, this is what he says,
verse 11, for as the heaven is high above the earth, so great
is his mercy toward them that fear him. You know, we've been
trying to go out into the heavens and go out to space and try to
see if we can find the end of it, and we haven't yet. We haven't
yet. And David said, as high as the
heavens are above the earth, that's how great God's mercy
is toward them that fear him. That's how great His mercy is.
That's great, isn't it? That should tell us, you know,
mercy is Him withholding from us what we deserve. That tells
you something about what we deserve. That's how great His mercy is.
That's how great we deserve condemnation. And that's how great His mercy
is. We see the greatness of His mercy when we see how far He's
removed our sins. Verse 12, as far as the east
is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions
from us. You can't measure the distance between the East and
the West. If you go East, you're never going to go West. If you
go West, you're never going East. They'll never meet, and that's
the point. He made our sins meet on Christ, and now he's cast
them as far as the East is from the West, and they'll never meet
on us again. God says, I forget them. I remember them no more.
And the thing is, this was the covenant He said He'd make with
His people. He said, I'll be merciful to their unrighteousness
and their sins and their iniquities. I will remember no more. Either
that's so, or the covenant's not worth trusting. God said,
I will not remember their iniquities anymore. Now listen, God didn't
simply forget them. Christ removed them. He's so
satisfied just as He removed them. He removed them. In those days and in that time,
saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for,
and there shall be none. None. And the sins of Judah,
and they shall not be found. For I will pardon them whom I
reserve. That's what pardon is. That's
God saying, you have no sins. They have been put away. I remember
them no more. I remember them no more. And
so he deals with us as dear children. He said in verse 13, like as
a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that
fear him, for he knows our frame, he remembers that we're dust. It means he's chastening us for
our profit. Not like our fathers did, the
Hebrew writers said. They did it for their own pleasure,
for their own selfish motives. The Lord does it with no selfish
motive. He does it for our profit alone.
To keep us partaking of Christ, our righteousness, keep us running
the race, looking to Christ alone. And so, because that's His purpose,
He doesn't destroy us with His chastening. He restores us. He
renews us. That's what this whole psalm
is about. He's going to renew your strength as the eagles,
he said in verse 5. In measure, when he shoots forth,
when his chastening shooteth forth, thou will debate with
it, he said, he stayeth his rough wind in the day of his east wind. He'll bring the trial and the
chastening just to a point and he's going to make it stay. He's
going to stop it when He's accomplished His purpose. He's not going to
chide and rebuke always. He's going to affectionately
grant repentance. He's going to make us loathe ourselves,
and He's going to renew us to behold Christ, bearing our sin.
That's how He brings us to loathe ourselves and our sins, is making
us behold Christ anew, bearing our sin. And that's how He grants you
repentance, to come to Him and confess your sin and ask mercy,
and He'll grant it to you, and that's the purpose to chase things
over. That's why He doesn't do it forever. You just imagine,
if God dealt with us, you know, if God, if He just, if He just
put a little pressure on us, just His little finger, what
would that do to us? We wouldn't be able to stand
it. We're talking about this Thursday night. If He just revealed
more of our sin to us and let us see what it really appears
like before Him, we wouldn't be able to take it. We wouldn't
be able to take it. And He's doing it on a massive
scale. If this earth is just moved a
little bit toward the sun, we'd burn up. If it's moved a little
bit away, we'd freeze to death. He's holding it all in store.
He's working it all together. And you don't have to worry about
him providing full provision in the earth and in nature. He
based his covenant on that. He said, as long as my covenant
exists, there's going to be a time to plant, a time to sow, and
a time to reap. The rain's coming. He said he
used that to describe his covenant, his everlasting covenant. That
tells you it's going to be held in store because his covenant's
not going to fail. But He's doing all of that and
He's doing it to provide for His people and protect us and
give us things we need and at the same time correct us from
our own sin and our own oppression and whatever it is that would
separate us. And it's for the Lord's sake,
verse 15, he says, as for man, his days are as grass, as a flower
of the field, so he flourisheth, for the wind passes over it,
and it's gone, and the place thereof shall know it no more.
You just think about this. This is us right here. This is
what we all are. And when the Lord put a new spirit
in us, we have a new spirit now. We have eternal life, but this
is all our flesh is. All it is. you start out strong,
you start out weak, get a little stronger, get a little wiser,
start getting weaker, and go right back to complete and total
weakness, and go back to the dust. And it's like that. Just like that. And when we get
to glory, there won't be one thing that had to do with these
bodies, that had to do with any of the works of our hands, that
will be there. Not a thing. And nothing that
we did in these bodies will have contributed or taken away from
it whatsoever. That's why Christ created this
heaven and this earth to show He's the one that creates the
new heaven and the new earth. Every person there, in body and
spirit, will be the creation He's made. The righteousness
and holiness of Christ Himself. And He will have created everything
that's there. That's how real He's working
all this for us. Is that going to make you believe Him? Yeah. Yes,
it will. But look, that's us, now that's
about how strong we are, like grass. Grass comes up in the
morning, you cut it down by the evening, it's just withered and
dead. Even if it's just on its own, it's like that sometimes,
it dies. But look, the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting
to everlasting. upon them that fear Him and His
righteousness unto children's children as such as keep His
covenant to those that remember His commandments to do them.
Now let's talk about these commandments. I'm going to be brief here. I've
gone longer than I thought I was going to go. By His grace, by His plenteous
mercy, by the way He's dealing with us, the Lord's going to
keep His children remembering His commandments and keeping
His covenant. I mean imperfection. Imperfection. This is His commandment that
we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love
one another as He gave His commandment. Christ is the covenant. He is
the covenant. A covenant is not a doctrine.
Our covenant is a person. Christ is the covenant. The Lord
said, I have given you for a covenant of the people. And he said, in
an acceptable time I've heard thee, in a day of salvation I've
helped thee, I've preserved thee, I give thee for a covenant of
the people to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate
heritage. That's Christ's glory as the
covenant. That thou mayest say to the prisoners,
go forth. And to them that are in darkness,
show yourself. They shall feed in the ways, their pastor shall
be in high places, they shall not hunger nor thirst, neither
shall the heat nor sun smite them, for he that hath mercy
on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall
he guide them, and I will make all my mountains away, and my
highways shall be exalted." That means what we've seen here from
Psalm 101 to Psalm 103. Our Lord is the righteous King.
And He is working this in each of His people over and over through
our life, bringing us down from our high place, from our self-sufficiency
and our sin and rebellion, and showing us mercy through that
trial, making us to be the afflicted and the overwhelmed, and showing
us mercy to bring us to Psalm 103 to show us, oh, bless the
Lord, oh, my soul. Look how He's dealt with you.
What mercy and grace He's dealt with you. Now as He does this,
here's what He's teaching us. He's teaching us that we don't
keep His commandment and His covenant by going back to the
Law of Sinai and trying to keep the Law. Please don't make that
giant leap men leap make when they hear that and say, well,
you're saying we can just break the law. Actually, I'm saying
God's people can't break it. That's what I'm saying. That's
how thoroughly Christ kept it. Here's how you're going to establish
the righteousness of the law. Romans 10.10 says, with the heart
man believeth unto righteousness. You believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and God imputes the righteousness of Christ to you. If you can
believe on Christ, God's not imputing righteousness unto you
to make you righteous. He's imputing righteousness to
you and the reason He gave you faith to believe on Christ is
because back there when Christ laid down His life on the cross,
He made you righteous by His obedience. What He did, you did. When He kept the law, you kept
the law. When He went to the cross and paid your sin debt,
it's paid. and you believe Him and righteousness
is imputed to you. But not only do we believe on
Christ for righteousness, we trust Christ to rule in judgment
and mercy for us and for our brethren in this earth. We trust
our prophet, priest, and king to execute judgment and righteousness
for all that are oppressed. That's all God's people. Look
here in verse 19. This was the summation of where
David was brought. This was like the grand statement
he makes. The Lord hath prepared His throne
in the heavens, and His kingdom ruleth over all. I'm not waiting
on the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God Greg just
read it. Christ entered into His kingdom
when He arose. He was born King. And He's ruling
over everything right now. He is. And when we're brought
to really believe the Lord Jesus Christ is reigning from His throne
in heaven and ruling over all, then we're safe and secure from
wild alarms. We really believe Him. When things
look like they are turned upside down, I know who turned them
upside down. I don't have to get all upset
about it. Then by His grace, and how do
we learn that though? How do we learn it? David is
showing us. He said, I thought I was the king that was going
to work this and work justice in my kingdom. And the Lord spoke
by me and taught me He is the king His doctrine comes down
as showers on the mown grass and it makes us flourish. He's
made with me an everlasting covenant ordering all things in sure.
I'm trusting Him to do this and He's keeping the faith in my
heart. How? By showing me over and over and
over again that I can't even keep myself in righteousness,
much less anybody else or a kingdom. It's got to be Christ doing it.
You know that about yourself? It's got to be Christ doing it.
And He's doing it. And when you go through some
of these things, you're going to find out He's executing judgment
and righteousness. And as He's showing you how He's
dealing with you, in love and pity and mercy, that's how He's
teaching us how to love our brethren. preaching the gospel of Christ
to accomplish redemption, reminding one another continually when
anything is wrong, Thy God reigneth. Trust Christ. Look to Christ.
Rest in Christ. and experiencing His power and
His grace to not only regenerate us, but to keep renewing us when
we fall, and when we fall and He keeps renewing you and keeps
showing you what you are in your flesh still and what you are
in Him by His grace. Then we start praying for one
another and we start trusting our brethren to our master. He's
the only one that can make you stand. He's the only one that
can make you stand in the beginning. He's the only one that can make
you stand now. And he will. He shall make his people stand.
David began his reign in Psalm 101. He's ready to cut sinners
off. I'm going to be a perfect king. I'm going to cut them off.
I'm not going to have anything to do with them. God made him say, David, you're
the proud wicked sinner. And Christ made him say, I'll
keep him cut down, and I'll keep you renewed in your inner man,
and I'm going to do the same for your brethren. And that made
David decide, I'm not going to be so quick to cut men off. I want to have compassion. I want
to have pity like the Lord had on me. That soul that on Jesus
hath leaned for repose, I will not, I will not desert to his
foes. That soul though all hell should
endeavor to shake, I'll never, no never, no never forsake. And over and over and over when
you fall, Fail to love one another as Christ loves us and again
He deals with you as a tender father in plenteous mercy and
loving kindness and renews you to behold it. Now He's dealt
with you. He grows us to love one another as He loves us. It's
the only way we're going to do it. To deal with our brethren's sins
as God's dealt with us in plenteous mercy because it's just to do
it. By God forgiving and forgetting
our sins for the sake of His Son, He makes us more willing
to forgive and forget our brethren's sin. If you can't do that, Christ
promises He won't do that for you either. He won't forget yours
either. He shows us pity and compassion
when we don't deserve it. He makes us more pitiful, more
compassionate when our brethren deserve it not. And this is how His angels and
all His creation will bless His name by obeying Him. That's what
He says there in those last verses. His angels that excel in strength
over us, they do His commandments. They hearken to the voice of
His Word saying, bless the Lord. All His hosts, His ministers
of His do His pleasure. All the works and all the places
of His dominion bless Him. He's making it all do this. He's
working this. He's ruling in His kingdom. And here's what He does for you
personally. He makes you say, bless the Lord, O my soul. Makes it personal. Bless the
Lord, O my soul. That's how He grows us in love.
By making us see more and more of His love to us. Could we with
ink the ocean feel? And were the skies of parchment
made? where every stalk on earth a
quill, and every man a scribe by trade, to write the love of
God above, would drain the ocean dry, nor could the scroll contain
the whole, though stretched from sky to sky." That's good, ain't
it? All right.