Psalm 89. I just want to look at one verse.
Psalm 89, 19. Then thou spakest in vision to
the Holy One, and saidest, I have laid help upon one that is mighty. I have exalted one chosen out
of the people. Now focus on that last phrase. I have exalted one chosen out
of the people. I want to try to speak to the
heart this morning. I pray God to give grace and
speak to our heart. But I want you to enter into
what this phrase means. what this last phrase means right
here, for all who come to Christ, for everyone that truly has a
need and comes to Christ, I want you to see what this means. Now,
God exalted David to be king over Israel. He said, I have
chosen one, I have exalted him. He exalted David to be king over
Israel. And He made David a type of Christ
in that. God exalted the Lord Jesus to
be king over his spiritual Israel. And God chose David to be the
savior of Israel, to be their savior, to be their king. He
chose him. And God the Father chose the
Lord Jesus to be the prophet, priest, and king of His people,
to save His people. And God chose David out of the
people. He chose him out of the people.
That meant he was one with the people, He was one with those
God sent him to rule. And so he could be a good king.
He could be a compassionate king. He knew what the people needed.
He was one of them. And the people would be comfortable
coming to David because he was one of them. Because he was one
of them. Well, that was God's purpose
in choosing the Lord Jesus from among the people. As God, he's
God. We're talking here about God
choosing him as the man, Christ Jesus. be His King and to be
one that's from out of the people, one that knows His people and
knows everything about His people, knows all our weakness and all
our need, so He can have compassion and pity and help His people. Our Redeemer, who is the King
of glory, chosen of God to be the Savior of His people, This
man, Christ Jesus, was chosen out of the people so that he
knows he's walked where we have walked. And he knows everything
we have experienced and are experiencing. He's been there. He knows it.
He knows it. He's experienced it. He knows
our flesh is weak. He knows we're dust. He knows
what we are in every way. And he's able to comfort his
people and give that comfort effectually to us. Now I want
to look here at his exaltation, I want to look at his election,
and I want to look at his extraction. And it's this last point I really
want to focus on, but that last point won't be good news to us. unless God blesses these first
two points to our heart and makes us see Christ exalted, chosen
of God, and why that's important. Then, knowing He's one of His
people and knowing He knows us and can have compassion on us,
that'll be a blessing to us. Now, first of all, Christ's exaltation. He said, I have exalted one.
Now, just like God exalted David to be the king over Israel, God
has exalted Christ Jesus to be the king over his spiritual Israel. That's what David pictured, that's
what physical, temporal Israel pictured, was God choosing Christ
to be the king over his spiritual Israel. The first king, the people
chose, remember, and they wanted a king like all the nations,
and they chose Saul. And Saul sinned against God,
and God rejected Saul as being the king. But before God had
ever set up Saul as being the king, God had chosen David to
be the king over Israel. And so it is in this world, the
first Adam that God set up to be the head sinned and all sinners
fell in him. And God rejected him for being
the head of his people. But Christ is that head, that
king, that prophet, priest, and king God chose before the world
was made. And that's who he exalted. to
represent his people, the Lord Jesus. God exalted the Lord Jesus
when he walked this earth. Twice he spoke from heaven and
said, this is my beloved son. This is my only begotten son.
This is my beloved. This is my son in whom I'm well
pleased. I'm satisfied in him. Hear ye
him. That's what he spoke. That's
what we need God to command in our hearts. Somebody might think,
well, this is just a message for sinners who are lost and
never come to Christ. Well, it is for sinners lost
that have never come to Christ, but it's also for believing sinners
because we never stopped coming to Christ. We never stopped needing
Christ. And this is how we're going to
see our need of him. God's going to speak and exalt
Christ in our heart every time that we behold Him, that's the
reason God spoke and said, this is my Son, hear Him. And when
He does that, we hear Him, and we obey Him, we believe Him.
Now God exalted Christ to heaven. He exalted Him to heaven because
Christ finished the work God gave Him to do. He did everything
the Father trusted Him to do. He finished the whole work. He
said that, John 17. He said, Father, glorify Thou
me, He said, I finished the work. I finished the work that you
gave me to do. And that's what our Lord Jesus
accomplished. He accomplished redemption for
his people in accord with God's holiness. There's the issue. We all sin. We've all sinned
in Adam. We all sin every day. We all
are sinners by nature. That's what our nature is, is
sin. We've all sinned and come short of the glory of God, and
God hates sin. God will not clear the guilty
sinner. The law of God, because God is
holy, demands the soul that sinneth must die, must die. And all must die, all shall die,
because God's holy, he will not He will not excuse a guilty sinner. He will not. We must die. We must die. And Christ came
to pay that price to redeem his people. And he paid it. The payment
was his precious blood. And our Lord Jesus came here
took flesh and representing his people went to that cross and
died. He laid down his life under the
law, under the curse, condemned before the law in place of his
people. We're going to observe the Lord's
table today. And we're remembering His broken
body and His shed blood because this is how Christ saved His
people. He gave His body to be broken. He shed His blood. He died under the curse and condemnation
of the law, being made a curse for His people. That's how He
redeemed His people. And He obtained eternal redemption
by His death. He redeemed all for whom He died. He did. He accomplished it. He didn't make it possible. He
did it. He accomplished it. That's what the scripture says.
He obtained eternal redemption for us, for those he represented. There's only one death under
the law. The law is holy. God's holy.
But there's only one death it requires. Christ died it. He
died that death. So now his people shall be given
life. He honored the law. He magnified
the law. He highly exalted God's holiness,
showed us God's righteousness. And when he did that for his
people, he gave the obedience, perfect obedience, the fullness
of everything the law demands, he gave that for his people.
He gave it. He fulfilled all righteousness
for his people, and he is that righteousness. And so, because
he highly exalted God's name, wherefore God also hath highly
exalted him, and given him a name above every name. He said, I've
exalted one. There's one that's exalted. That's
Christ. All his people exalted in him,
but he's the one exalted. He's the one exalted. And by
God bringing him out of the grave, Exalting Him out of the grave
in the resurrection, out of that grave from death. God declared
Christ has put an end to death. He conquered sin, death, and
hell for His people. That's what He conquers. He's
the plague of death. He's the death of death for His
people. Sin means death. Sin means death. But where there is no sin, there
is no death. And in Christ is no sin. put
it away, and everybody that is in Him by divine election, He
put it away. There is no sin. So there's no
death. There's no death. Judgment settled for His people.
The second death is judgment. It's settled for His people.
God will not pour out wrath on Christ and then pour it out again
on His people. He's paid the payment. Righteousness means
life. Christ Himself is the righteousness. He is the life. He is the resurrection
to his people. That's what he told Martha. He
said, because I live, thou shalt live also. He that believeth
on me shall never die. That's what he said. Death for
the believer is only gonna be us putting off, it's gonna be
us finally getting to do what we've been wanting to do ever
since God called us, be free from this body of sin. put away
all the sin that we hate, that we wish we could be free from.
That's all death is for God's sake. Putting this body off and
going to be with Him. God exalted Christ by His ascension,
not just bringing Him out of the grave. They sat and watched
the man, Christ Jesus, ascend up into the clouds out of their
sight. What does that mean? That means
there's a man. He's God. But he's a man, just
like you are, that has ascended up and sat down on the throne
of God. And he has all power in heaven
and in earth and under the earth, in all this universe, to rule
all things, everything. I mean, can't even a dog wag
his tongue against his people without his consent. He's ruling
everything, every king, every ruler in this earth, everybody,
your employers, everybody you come in contact with, He ruling
all for His people. That's what He's doing. And that's
a man there doing that for us, brethren. Do you believe this? It takes God-given faith. Do
you remember when you heard this and you just thought, I can't
believe that. You mean there's a man, heaven
is a place, it's obviously a place because Christ went up in a glorified
body and he somewhere sat down. And it's wherever he is, but
he's given you faith to believe him, to believe him. The voice cried, lift up your
heads, ye everlasting gates, be ye lift up, ye everlasting
doors, that the King of glory may enter in. Who is the King
of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the
Lord mighty in battle. That's who He is. This is why
we don't have to worry about rulers of this earth and the
potsherds diving with the potsherds. Christ, our King's ruling it. He shall regenerate and exalt
Christ in the heart of each one He redeemed. This shall happen
for everyone He redeemed. He is going to bring them unto
the gospel. He is going to give them a new heart. And He is going
to make you and me, if you are His, He is going to make you
satisfied with Christ just like the Father is satisfied with
Him. He is going to make you well pleased with Him just like the
Father is well pleased with Him. That is when we stop Trying to
add to it. That's when we're satisfied.
When he makes us satisfied with Christ. Now let's see his election. He said, I've exalted one chosen. I've exalted one chosen. God
elected the Lord Jesus. He chose him. He chose him. God chose him. Natural man hates
election. Hates God electing whom he will. Choosing whom he will. Natural
man hates that. I don't think that's fair. You
don't think it's fair for God to do what he will? That simple
statement, I think Brother Todd put in the bulletin. In the final
analysis, rejecting the doctrine of election is rejecting God
as being God. That's what it amounts to. But see, here it is. Christ himself, the Savior, is
one God chose. God chose him. We can't deny
election without denying the Savior. We can't deny election
without denying the only salvation there is for sinners like you
and me. That'd be like you being out in the ocean drowning and
there's one boat that's coming that can save you and you sink
the boat. You deny God's election, you
deny Christ who He chose to do all the saving. By God's election of Christ,
He shows us God's wisdom. He shows us God's wisdom. God
chose a man to save men. Angels couldn't save men. Angels
couldn't save men. The law says, by man came death,
by man must come the resurrection. Man's sin, man must put sin away. Man must answer to the law. And
the Lord shows His wisdom. He chose and his son to take
flesh and as a man suffer for the sins of his people. That's
wisdom. That's wisdom. Angels could never
satisfy God's justice for men, but a man could and a man has.
That's the one God chose. This is one reason over in Ephesians
1 the Spirit of God teaches us As His children, we say, blessed
be God our Father, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He's blessed us with all spiritual blessings. Blessed be God. Where did this begin? According
as He hath chosen us in Christ Jesus before the world was made.
And you know, when he makes you know you're a sinner, you're
not angry with his God choosing. You're thankful, you're glad,
you rejoice. You know, the Gentiles, they
were strangers and they were aliens from all the promises
of God. God, up until he sent Christ and he sent the gospel
to the Gentiles, now God saved some elect among the Gentiles,
and he spoke of it all through the Old Testament. but he didn't
clearly pronounce it and declare it till he sent Paul to the Gentile.
So all that time, God was just speaking to Israel.
He just gave the oracles to Israel. And there was a bunch of nations
outside of Israel. And sinners had their gods. They
were worshipping their idols and making their sacrifices.
Natural man knows he's got to make a sacrifice to God. The
problem is we try to do it ourselves. Natural man knows he's got to
have blood. Look how many heathen religions have blood involved
in them. But the problem was God didn't speak to any of them
for that whole time. And He didn't even speak to all
those in Israel, only His elect in Israel. But when He sent this
word to the Gentiles, and Paul preached to the Gentiles, and
they heard that God had an elect people among the Gentiles, those
God gave faith to believe, they didn't get mad about it, they
were glad, they rejoiced in it. Listen to this, Acts 13.48, When
the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and they glorified
the word of the Lord. And as many as were ordained
to eternal life believed. How can I know God elected me?
How can I know God chose me? There is only one way. As many as God ordained to eternal
life, by God's grace, they believed Christ. Do you believe Christ? Do you believe God that He really
has exalted one, that one He chose, and that one is Christ,
and He's all the salvation of His people? Do you believe God?
Do you believe on Christ? Are you happy God chose whom
He would, and gave them to Christ, and Christ did all the saving,
and Christ gets all the glory? Are you happy? You believe Him? That's how we know He ordained
us to eternal light. He brings you to believe Him.
And you never stop believing Him. And I'll tell you this,
when He brings you to see what a sinner you are, that's what
the Gentiles saw. They saw this whole time we were
aliens from God. We were alienated. We were cut
off. We were without God, without
Christ, without hope in the world. And he sent the word to them
and said, I've chosen some people among the Gentiles and I've redeemed
them and I've come to give them life. They heard that and God
spoke it to their heart. Exalted Christ in their heart.
They were glad and they believed him. And you will be too. You will be too. Now let's hear
this last word and here's where I want to focus. Focus our attention. His extraction. We see His exaltation,
God exalted Him. We see His election, God chose
Him. Where did God extract Him from?
Where did He find Him? Where did He bring Him out from?
Where did He elect Him? Where was He? Out of the people. I have exalted one chosen out
of the people. God chose David out of the people.
That made David to be a good king. That made him to be a compassionate
king. Because God chose him from among
the people. God choosing the man Christ Jesus from among men
makes Christ a very good prophet, priest, and king. Because he's
walked where we have. He knows everything there is
to know about his people. Scripture says, Hebrews 5.2,
who can have compassion on the ignorant. That's me. That's me. I started out thinking I knew
a little something. And the more God shows me cries,
the more I realize that's me. But he can have compassion on
the ignorant and on them that are out of the way, that's me. I need him to constantly keep
me in the way. For that he himself is also compassed
with infirmity. He knows everything about His
people. So many times we read of Christ when He walked this
earth, He had compassion on sinners. He had pity on sinners. He's
full of compassion, the psalmist said. David's family were just
common people. Jesse, Obed, Boaz, Ruth, they
were just common folks. David's occupation was a shepherd
boy. He carried lambs in his bosom. He saw lambs wandering off and
he'd go get them and he'd pick them up, put them next to his
chest, he'd carry them back to the fold. He saw mothers with
their young and he gently led them, not going too fast, just
led them along so he could lead them back to the fold. And then
God made him an under-shepherd as a king over Israel. And all
of that David experienced being a shepherd of sheep. made him
compassionate on sinners because we are just like sheep. Just
like sheep. Christ having experienced everything
His weak people experience is a faithful, compassionate shepherd. Isaiah 40.11 says He shall feed
His flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with
His arm and carry them in His bosom. Lambs, just little lambs,
too weak. He is going to gather them and
carry them in His bosom. shall gently lead those that
are with young. It's what Christ is doing for
us. David's humble upbringing made him a compassionate king.
His birth, his education, his growing up among the people made
him know the people that God had exalted him to rule over.
He knew them. He was just like them. Their
struggles, their needs, their suffering, it made him a better
king. David experienced in the wilderness the hand of Saul,
relentlessly trying to pursue him and oppress him and kill
him. He experienced that over and over. That made David a better
king. That made him a more compassionate
king. When his people that he was sent
to be the shepherd of, the king of, when they were oppressed
and persecuted by men, David had experienced that. David's own temptations made
him a better king because he saw what weakness he was and
it made him be able to have compassion on other sinners just like him.
Well, as the Son of God, Christ is God. He's God, all power in
heaven and earth. He's equal with the Father and
the Holy Spirit. God the Father chose him out
of the people as a man. As a man. to be one with His
people, to experience and know His people's weakness and everything
that we go through, He knows it. Hebrews 2.11 says, well let
me read this to you, I want to read the verse before it. Hebrews
2.10 says, It became Him, for whom are all things and by whom
are all things, and bringing many sons unto glory, to make
the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. because both he that sanctifyeth
and they who are sanctified are all of one, for which cause Christ
is not ashamed to call them brethren. not ashamed to call us brethren.
The whole purpose of God is that he might be the firstborn among
many brethren. You, believer, have a older brother
that's seated in heaven who is the ruler of the whole universe.
Are you poor? Well, your brother's rich. Are
you weak? Your brother's strong. Do you
have needs? Your brother has all provision. He's the firstborn among many
brethren and his people are joint heirs of God in him and with
him. That man that's seated on the
throne of glory ruling all things, now listen to this, he's humble.
He's humble. We don't usually speak of God
this way, seated in glory, the man Christ Jesus. He's as humble
seated there as he was when he walked this earth. He's lowly and meek, and he receives
sinners. He has compassion on his sinful
people. He grew up poor. He grew up poor
among men. He wasn't rich. He was not of
nobility. Yes, David had been a king, and
Mary and Joseph were of that family, but by the time Christ
came, that glory was gone, and Christ didn't come. That's one
of the reasons it was gone. is because Christ came to be
born of a poor family, not a noble family. Not born in a temple,
I mean in a palace, in a marble palace, born in a cow stable
and laid in a feed trough where they fed the cattle. He came up educated in the carpenter's
shop, working for Joseph. He knew what it was, that curse,
in the sweat of your face, you'll eat bread. Christ knows that.
You ever get weary working? He knows it. He did it. He did
that. He was not one of the Pharisees,
not one of the Sadducees, not one of the Sanhedrin. They despised
him and rejected him. Christ was humble. He spoke the
simple language of uneducated folks. Because when you preach
in simple language of uneducated folks, the educated folks can
understand it if they want to. And they did. That's why they
rejected him. But he spoke so everybody could
understand him. He didn't exalt himself over
the people. He made sinners comfortable to
come to him. He chose fishermen for companions. He was a friend of publicans
and sinners. That's the greatest news you'll
ever hear if you're a sinner. He preached the simple message
of God's free grace in him. He said, all the father giveth
me shall come to me. All that the father giveth me,
all the father has chosen. All that the father gave to me,
they shall come to me. He said, no man can come except
my father's wrong, but all that the father gave to me shall be
drawn. They shall come, and I will in no wise cast them out. Lord, they're not like you. They're
sinners. You're spotless. You're holy. You're without sin.
They're sinners. They're the very thing you came
to put away. They're the very thing you despise
and hate. You can have nothing to do because
you're holy. That's why he came. so he can receive his sinful
people. He declares, and he declared
this all through his ministry, that all are sinners. He didn't
show respect to persons. He didn't lift one above another.
He declared, we're all sinners. Man at his best state is altogether
vanity. Worms in ourselves. equally needing
Christ to be our only righteousness. This is why there are not many
rich, there are not many mighty, there are not many noble that
are called. They're rich in themselves, they're rich in their works,
they're mighty in their estimation of themselves, they're noble
in their estimation of themselves. Too proud. That's so of men who
have wealth and riches, that's so of men who are base and poor. Sinners by nature are too proud
to come to Christ a sinner. Too proud. And those he calls,
he didn't call many mighty and noble and rich. Why? God chose the foolish things
of the world. That's talking about you and
me he's called. And the gospel he sent us to
preach. And the cross he died on. Everything he does to save
a sinner, He's chosen the things this world calls foolish. Why? To confound the wise. To just confound them. Well,
I can't figure out why they do that. To confound the wise. God's chosen the weak things
of the world to confound the things which are mighty. Just
to leave them confused. Base things of the world, things
which are despised, have God chosen. Things which are nothing.
to bring to nothing things that are. Why? That no flesh shall
glory in his presence. That's why he teaches us, mind
not high things, condescend of men of low estate. Be not wise in thy own conceits. This is what Christ did and this
is what he does. He humbled himself. He made himself
of no reputation. He took upon him the form of
a servant. A servant. Made in a likeness of sinful
flesh. And he made sinners know they
could come to him. They could come to him and pour
their heart out to him. And he wouldn't revile them. He wasn't going to exalt himself
over them. Just think if he did that to us. He's God. If he shined
his light, he'd just consume you. He doesn't do that. People pay other men to listen
to them. Those men sit there and they'll
ask open-ended questions to keep you talking. How does that make
you feel? What does that do for you? And
all those kinds of things keep you talking. And temporarily
it makes you feel better because you get it off your chest. Somebody
listened to you, didn't interrupt you, they just listened and you
got it all off your chest. And that makes you feel better
temporarily. But the burden remains, it's
just temporary. In just a very short while, it's
going to be back. Because no sinner can cleanse
the conscience. No sinner can take the burden
off another sinner. But listen to the Lord Jesus
Christ. He says, come unto me, all ye that labor Working to
be free. Working to soothe the conscience. Working to not feel the burden. Come to me all you that labor
and are heavy laden. You just had the weight on you. I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me. His yoke is so easy. He just
says, Believe Me. You believe Me. You follow Me. You trust Me. Learn of Me. For I am meek and lowly in heart.
That's why He says you can come to Him. I am meek and lowly in
heart. And you shall find rest unto
your souls. Rest to your soul. My yoke's
easy, my burden's light. Christ is so meek and lowly,
He receives true sinners. Go to Christ. How do I go to
Christ? Go somewhere alone and call on Him. Go somewhere alone, just you
and Him. And you open up your heart to
the Lord. And you lay before Him every
trouble, every fear, every doubt, every need, every sin. Christ has already experienced
what you suffer. He's able to remove the weight,
He's able to remove the burden, He's able to cleanse the conscience,
He's able to give you peace. He is God's exalted King, but
He's a humble man. He's God, but He's a humbled
man, meek and lowly, ready to receive sinners. Chosen not just
to make us righteous, but He did that, but also so that He
can have compassion on sinners. Now only somebody that's walked
in your shoes is able to do that. Only somebody, and really and
truly only somebody who is sinless and walked in your shoe is really
able to know what you suffer. He knows what it's like to leave
his home in glory, be far away from home. He knows what it is
to be a stranger in a strange place. He knows what it is to
be despised and rejected of men. He knows what it is to be left
all alone. He knows what it is to be poor. He knows what it
is to be betrayed. And listen to this, He knows
what it is to bear the weight of sin that you're bearing. Because
He bore the sin of His people. He knows what it is when, if
you're His child and you're suffering God's chastening hand, the Lord
Jesus knows what that chastening hand feels like. He never needed
to be chastened. Listen, the chastisement of our
peace was upon Him when He bore our sin. And with His stripes
we're healed. He knows what that's like. And for the aged, Christ knows
what the dark valley of the shadow of death is. He passed through
it and He's ascended with His people in Him. What I'm saying
to you is whatever you need at all times, go to Christ. Go to Christ. If you don't know
Him and you've never called on Him, go to Him right now. If
you do know Him, you've still got all kind of sin you've got
to be delivered from. You've got all kind of trouble
you've got to be delivered from. Go to Him. You need righteousness? He's righteousness. Go to Him.
You need forgiveness? Confess your sin to Him. He's
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from
all unrighteousness. You need strength? Go to Him.
He's the strength. He's the strength. You need peace
in your mind, in your heart? He speaks peace to the troubled. He promises, He's meek and He's
lowly and He'll receive you and He'll give rest to your soul.
But now listen, don't try to impress Him. Don't try to impress Him. Don't
come with anything that you think is going to impress Him. He ain't
impressed. He ain't impressed. He provides
it all. He don't want anything from you.
He said, if I was hungry, I wouldn't ask you. Cattle on a thousand
hills are His. He don't need us. When He's given
everything to us and we praise Him, we haven't given anything
to Him. He gave it all to us. Don't come
trying to impress Him. Come like you are a sinner. He already knows your heart.
He already knows you're a sinner. He knows what you've done. Come
to Him just like you are. Humble yourself, therefore, unto
His mighty hand, casting all your care on Him, for He careth
for you. And that poor trembling sinner
that comes to him, needing him to meet all his need and be the
provision of everything he needs, he said, I'll never cast him
out. He'll provide everything you
need. And he'll give you rest for your soul. Rest for your soul. Amen. Let's stand together. Father, thank you for your word.
We pray now you bless this to our hearts. Make us come empty. Lord, we have compassion on your
people. Make us call on you. Make us
look only to you. Lord, you're our need all the
time in every situation. Always. Make us know this. Be with those that are troubled
and draw them to Your feet, Lord, and give my heart to speak truthfully
to You. Thank You, Lord, for blessing
us. Thank You for giving us this peace and all our needs. In the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Your exalted, chosen King, our
compassionate Redeemer. We ask these things. Amen.