Alright brethren, let's turn
in our Bibles to Psalm 28. We've had several messages out
of Psalm 28. We saw in the first verse how that
Christ is crying out to the Father on the cross, saying, unto thee
will I cry, O Lord my rock, be not silent to me, lest if thou
be silent to me I become like them that go down into the pit. Christ was bearing our sin on
the cross, and for that God separated Himself from Him, and yet Christ
never ceased praying to the Father, have mercy. saved me. And then once justice was satisfied,
the Father answered him, and Christ begins praising the Father
in verse 6. Blessed be the Lord, because
he hath heard the voice of my supplications. This will be something
you'll see in our second message this morning. I've showed you
over and over how the Lord God heard Christ. When he cried out, he heard Christ. And that's very important. The
Scriptures repeat that very often. Blessed be the Lord because he
hath heard the voice of my supplications. The Lord is my strength and my
shield. My heart trusted in him and I'm
helped. Therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth
and with my soul will I praise him. And He's still praising
Him. He's praising Him every time
the Gospel is preached in the midst of the congregation. He
said, I'll praise Thee in the midst of the congregation. And
that's what Christ is doing through the Gospel. The Lord is their
strength and He's the saving strength of His anointed. That's
what He's teaching us through the Gospel. That the Lord is
the strength and saving strength of His anointed. So, when it
seems like God doesn't hear us, it's not so. Christ shows us,
God hears us, and now God hears His people for Christ's sake.
So now Christ is risen at God's right hand and He's ever living
to make intercession for His people. He's at God's right hand,
alive, forevermore, ever living to make intercession for God's
people. And so, here are four blessings. These are four blessings
that all God's people shall have through the intercession of Christ
who intercedes with the Father for us. Verse 9, here's four
blessings. He says, Save thy people and
bless thine inheritance. Feed them also and lift them
up forever. The first thing Christ prays
for is salvation. Save thy people. Now for the
Lord Jesus to intercede for God to save declares that we need
salvation. For Him to say save declares
we need salvation. It's so because we sinned in
Adam and we broke the law of the very One who created us.
Isn't that amazing? We broke the very law of our
Creator. We rebelled against the One in
whom we live and move and have our being. That's insanity, isn't
it? You know, the little child who
was tender toward his father, tender when he offended even
his earthly father, becomes harder and harder in sin the more he
grows up. The sins that once broke his
heart, even sins against his earthly mother and father. The
sins that broke his heart don't even bother him. And he grows
harder and harder so that he not only can be a smart aleck
to his father, he hates God and everybody God puts in authority
over him. And if God took his life, God
would be just. And if we meet God in that state,
God will justly cast Him in the outer darkness where there will
be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Now what parent sets their child
down and says, now the older you get, the more I want you
to sin against me and against God? The older you get, the more
I want you to grow harder and harder. Don't let these sins
bother you. You get harder and harder against
sin, and you rebel more and more against sin. What parent teaches
their child that? We don't have to teach our children
to sin. We all come forth in this world
sin, and therefore all we do is sin. And all we do is get
better and better at sinning. And here's the chief, one of
the chief sins is we get better and better at pretending like
we're not sinners and we're holy. And that's sin. The fact Christ
prays for salvation not only declares that we need to be saved,
it declares we can't save ourselves. He wouldn't cry to God and say
save if we could save ourselves. We can't do it. Can the Ethiopian
change his skin? Can the leopard change his spots?
Then may you also do good that are accustomed to do evil. God
said, though thou wash thee with nitrate and take much soap, yet
thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord God. Trying
to clean ourselves is like taking a taking a bath in motor oil
and then trying to weave out a snow white wedding dress. It would be absolutely impossible. Everything you touch would defile
it. And that's where we are. We're just uncomely, black, full
of iniquity before God. When Christ says, save thy people,
when He says, save thy people, He declares not all people are
God's people. God has a people He chose freely
by His grace. And those are the ones for whom
Christ died. He laid down His life only for
God's people. Those that God chose freely by
grace, that's the only ones He died for. If He had died for
all men without exception, He would intercede for all men without
exception. And He says here, save thy people. Well, how do you know that's
what Christ prays? Well, in His high priestly prayer
in John 17, 1, these words make Jesus and lifted up His eyes
to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify Thy Son
that Thy Son also may glorify Thee. As Thou has given Him power
over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many
as Thou has given Him. And in verse 9 of John 17, He
said, I pray for them. I intercede for them. I pray
not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me, for
they are thine. And then later he said, neither
I pray for these alone, but for them also which shall believe
on me through their word, because they are thine. You see, Christ
has a people. Well, preacher, that offends
sinners. You shouldn't tell sinners that,
because that offends sinners. Why tell the sinner that God
has an elect people for whom Christ died and that's all that
Christ died for? Why tell sinners that? Because
God takes this gospel of His grace And He stains the pride
of us. That's what He does when He begins
the work of grace. He stains our pride. He brings
the sinner down in humility, down to the dust at Christ's
feet where we all need to be brought. That's why we're going to say
this thing is of God, then we're going to say it starts with God
and it starts with God choosing whom He will and passing by whom
He will. That's sovereign God. Now, had Christ died for all
men, here's another reason we declare it. Had Christ died for
all men, then all men would be saved. He wouldn't have to say,
specify, save thy people. He could just say, save them
all. Because they will all be saved. Because Christ shall not
fail. He successfully redeemed all
His people from the curse of the law by His death on the cross.
When He had by Himself purged our sins, when He had by Himself
accomplished purging the sins of His people, putting away the
sins of His people all by Himself without any help from anybody,
He arose and He sat down because the work was finished. He accomplished
it. That's why we declare Christ
died for a limited number of people and made atonement for
a limited number of people because Christ finished the work. And
so by His finished work now, God promises that there is no
record, absolutely no record of sin in God's record books
toward His people. There's no record of our sin.
In those days and in that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity
of Israel shall be sought for." Israel is His people. There shall
be none, He said. And the sins of Judah, Judah
is His people, and they shall not be found. Sins won't be found. For I'll pardon them whom I reserve,
whom I chose, whom I elected to save. I'll pardon them. I, even I am he that blotteth
out thy transgressions for my own sake. The picture there is
of God having a book just like they have down at the courthouse
where the crimes of every criminal are listed. And God through the
blood of Christ says, I have blotted out all record of your
sins. I've done that for my own self,
for my own sake, for my own righteousness sake because Christ established
the righteousness of God on Calvary's cross. I've blotted out your
transgressions and I will not remember my sins. There's nothing
in that statement that says, well, it's as if I never sinned. God says, I got no record of
it. The all-knowing God says there
is no record of any crime existing. That's justification. That's
what justification is. To have all our offenses taken
away. That's why when in the picture
in the Old Testament, that's why there was not just a lamb
for atonement brought, because that alone couldn't picture what
Christ did. There was also a scapegoat brought,
and all the sins of God's people were laid on that scapegoat,
and a fit man took that scapegoat into a land not inhabited. Christ
is that scapegoat who was made sin for His people, who bore
our sins in His own body on the tree, and Christ is the fit man
who was holy in Himself and never ceased praying to the Father.
And do you know, even in the picture It's showing us Christ
was really made sin because even in the picture, before that fit
man could come back into the camp, you know what he had to
do? He had to wash. He couldn't even come back into
the camp without he washed and became ceremonially clean. Christ took away our sins. And for this reason, God's raised
Christ. He's given Christ the promise
of His covenant to give Christ glory that He had with the Father
before the world was. But not only as God, but as the
God-man, as the mediator, as the head over all things to His
church, so that it is Christ right now who has all power over
everything and everybody in the whole universe, in the whole
world. Nothing has a start or go out
without Christ's consent. And nothing happens in this world
without Christ's consent. And He's sending forth His gospel. He's sovereign to rule everything. He said He would. He said this
is how He would do it. Now that's sovereignty to say
this is how I'm going to save and then save that way. And bring
this gospel to every person He saves. Every person He saves. send forth the Holy Spirit into
their hearts and create an entirely new man within them. And by Him
teaching us, He makes old things pass away and all things become
new. He does it by teaching us who
He is and what He's accomplished and where He is now and what
He's accomplishing now. And He don't ever stop doing
it this way. It pleased God to save His people through the foolishness
of preaching. That is from the very beginning
to the very end. That's how He does it. Because
in Isaiah Christ said, In that day they shall know that it is
I that speaks. My people will know it's I that
am speaking. How beautiful are the mountains
or the feet of Him that brings glad tidings. that publishes
peace, that declares thy God reigneth. He says, my ambassadors,
my messengers will lift up the voice together. They'll lift
up their voice together with the voice, the voice of our Lord
Jesus Christ. And He said, my people will know
it's I that speaks. And because He's using earthen
vessels that are nobodies and nothings, that have no power
in us, so that the excellency of the powers of God not of us,
When that word is going forth and actually goes into the heart
of a sinner by Christ, that incorruptible seed begets them again. That's
the only time and the only place where no flesh will glory in
His presence. That's right. And men will start
glorying in the Lord. And God makes Christ all unto
them. And He continues to save us this way from all Satan's
temptations, from all our troubles in this world, and even from our sinful flesh. And He'll keep doing it until
He makes us drop this body of death. And He'll continue to
do it. It's because Christ intercedes
with the Father, crying, Save thy people. save thy people. John said to believers, my little
children, he said, these things I write unto you that you sin
not. But when you sin, we have an advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous. An advocate is a legal advocate,
a legal counsel, a lawyer. And our lawyer is Jesus Christ
our righteousness. So he's pleading to God, save
thy people based on justice, according to the justice of God,
according to his own righteousness. And that's not all he is. He's
the propitiation for our sins. He is the reconciler who has
made reconciliation, made peace between God and his people, made
us at one, at atonement, at onement between God and his people. so
that he also pleads justice, that justice will be carried
out so that mercy will be given to his people because justice
demands that because of him. Now that's our advocate, that's
our intercessor, save thy people. Now secondly, he prays this,
bless thine inheritance. Before the world was made, God
blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
according as He chose us in Christ. And they were all done then.
He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. When
He entered into covenant to save His people, God blessed us with
all spiritual blessings and we had them all in eternity. Eternally
redeemed, eternally justified, eternally accepted of God. everything
accomplished in eternity. But all those blessings He gave
us in eternity, God shall make us have those blessings and be
given those blessings in time. Every one of them. And one of
the first blessings He makes us to receive is this, He makes
us to see that we are God's inheritance. Christ says, bless thine inheritance. You reckon God's going to not
have His inheritance? You reckon God's not going to
receive what's His? By the blood of Christ, by the
purchase price paid by Christ, all God's people are God's inheritance. And He's going to have His people,
every one of them. So when we sin, our advocate
with the Father, prays the Father, intercedes with the Father, and
He says what Moses said. They are Thy people. They are
Thine inheritance, which Thou broughtest out by Thy mighty
power, by Thy stretched out arm. Save Thy people and bless Thine
inheritance. And for the sake of Christ, He
blesses His inheritance. Look at Romans 8, 29. All these things He gave us in
eternity, He makes us experience every one of these in time. Romans 8.29, he says this, "...whom He did foreknow, He
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that
He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom
He did predestinate, them He also called. Whom He called,
them He also justified. Whom He justified, them He also
glorified." All of that He did in eternity. And then Christ
came forth and laid down His life for us. And He says now,
because that happened, what shall we say then to these things?
If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not
His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not
with Christ also freely give us all these things? These are
the things He's talking about that He's going to give us. He's
going to call us, and He's going to justify us, and He's going
to glorify us. Why? How do you know He did that
in eternity? Back up verse 28. We know that
all things work together for good to them that love God, to
them who are thee called according to His purpose. God's purpose
in eternity did all this. And God's purpose stands fast. He works everything in time after
the counsel of His own will according to His purpose. And so He works
everything together and nothing will frustrate Him to bring this
Word to us and call us out and make us have these blessings
in time. Bless thine inheritance, Christ said. And so we'll have
them. And He continues to bless us by growing us in Christ, in
the knowledge of Christ, in the grace of Christ, in full assurance
of salvation. And He won't ever stop growing
His people. He's going to feed us and grow
us. And that's the next thing. Here's how He does it. Christ
prays to the Father, verse 9, feed them also. Feed them also. That word means rule them. How
does He rule His people? He rules His people the way He
feeds His people. through this gospel, through
the preaching of this word. Our resurrected Redeemer praised
the Father, and He says, feed thy people, rule thy people,
and He has to do this. Christ has to do this because
it's written in scripture He would. Micah 5,2 says, Thou Bethlehem
Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah,
yet out of thee shall He come forth unto me, that is to be
ruler in Israel. That's Christ. Born at Bethlehem,
whose goings forth have been from old, from everlasting. And
he shall stand and feed in the strength of the Lord, and in
the majesty of the name of the Lord his God, and they shall
abide. Because he feeds his people,
they shall abide. They shall abide. And due to
God the Father being satisfied with Christ, when He asks the
Father, when He prays to the Father and says, feed them, rule
them, the Father is well pleased with Christ. He is satisfied
with Christ. And because He has given that privilege to Christ,
He says to the Lord as our mediator, feed them. Whatever blessing
God gives us, it's coming to us because our mediator went
to God and prayed the Father on our behalf, and it's coming
to us because our mediator comes from the Father to us on the
Father's behalf and gives us the blessing. And he does it
by saying to his people, feed thy people with thy rod, the
gospel of Christ, the flock of thine heritage which dwells solitarily
in the wood, and let them feed in Bashan and Gilead as in the
days of old. And he feeds us through this
word. How does he rule us by the gospel?
Well, Paul said we are constrained. We're ruled by the love of Christ. because we thus discern. If one
died for all, then all for whom he died, died. Our old man of
sin died. And in that he liveth, he liveth
unto God, and so we that liveth should live unto Him, not unto
ourselves. Now how do we discern that? How
does that constraint enter into our heart? By God through His
gospel. And the love of Christ is the
constraint. It's the rule, it's the food
that motivates us and moves us and rules us. The rule of law,
the rule of life that the believer is under is faith which works
by love, by the constraint of Christ's love. You men that are
married to your wives, you wives that are married to your husbands,
Do you have to have a big list of rules and regulations on the
wall at home so that you go to it every day and say, well, let
me see now. This is going to make me love him. This is going
to make me love her. Let me go down this list, make
sure that I do everything I'm supposed to do to love her. Why? Why don't you need the law to
do that? You got love in your heart for one another. Well,
by God's grace, by the Holy Ghost shedding abroad in our hearts
the love of God, we have the love of God in our heart. And
as this gospel is preached, the Holy Ghost spreads that love
abroad in our hearts more and more. And we're constrained by
Him. Don't you walk out of here sometimes thinking, I'm going
to serve Him. I'm going to do what He says
to do. because I want to. He's a faithful husband to me
who loved me and gave himself for me. That's how he ruled me. He loved me and gave himself
for me. And now the Scripture says, by Him giving His life
for me, I've become dead to the law. By the body of Christ, I've
become dead to the law that I should be married to another, even to
Christ who's raised from the dead. And by Him shall I bring
forth fruit unto God. And you leave out here saying,
I got a good husband. And you don't need law and regulations
to obey Him and walk after Him any more than you need it for
your earthly husband. Because you got the love of God
shed abroad in your heart. And He feeds you and rules you
through this gospel. That's how He does it. Thus saith
the Lord thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, I am the Lord
thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by
the way that thou shouldest go. The Lord's my shepherd, I shall
not want. What does a shepherd do? He maketh
me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still
waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth
me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. He, He,
He, He. He rules me. He feeds me. He
leads me. He guides me. We believe that
He really does rule. Christ really does rule. He's
really our sovereign head and we're His body and it's Him that
filleth all in all. And then this fourth thing Christ
prays for, He says in our Psalm, Psalm 28 verse 9, He says, "...and
lift them up forever." It means sustain them, support them, preserve
them, bear them, carry them. He shall feed His flock like
a shepherd. That's what we just saw. He feeds us. He rules us.
And He shall gather the lambs with His arms and carry them
in His bosom. That's what the Word means. Lift
them up forever. He preaches this Word to us and
He rules in our hearts. And when we begin to stumble
and falter and fail like a weak little lamb, He gathers up His
people And He carries us. And the fact is, He is carrying
us all the time. He is lifting us up all the time.
He said, I bear you on eagle's wings. I brought you to Myself. He lifts us out of the horrible
pit. That's where He found us. And
He lifted us up and He lifted our head up to Him. And He lifted
us up and He carried us in His bosom. And He will never stop
doing that. all the way we go through this
pilgrimage. He'll never stop doing that. He carries His people.
And one day, one day, we're going to need somebody to lift us up
and bear us out of this dead body into His presence. And then to lift up our body
and glorify it and carry it into His presence. And just like we
can't do that, We can't do any of this other. He's lifting us
up. He's sustaining us. He's carrying
us. And one day soon, He's going
to carry us right into glory, into His presence, where we'll
be with Him forever. And so by His precious blood,
we have all these blessings. And we've experienced these blessings.
And so you know what we do now? Whatever you see Christ suffering,
we're going to suffer to a degree. Whatever you see Christ praying,
interceding, He is going to bring His people to intercede on behalf
of our brethren, just like He intercedes for us. And so He
brings you and I to say, Lord, save Thy people. Lord, bless
Thy inheritance. Lord, feed them. Lord, lift them
up. Talk Thursday night about what
we really need. That's what we really need. And
He said, My God shall supply all your need. By Christ our
intercessor. Let's stand together. Father, we thank You for Your
Word. Thank You that You always keep us refreshed and keep Your Word
new and Your mercies new to us every day. Lord, make us to rejoice
that You're the one who does these things and that You do
them because Christ, our Mediator, never ceases to pray these things
on our behalf. Lord, we pray now and we ask
You on behalf of Your lost sheep. We are praying for your lost
sheep. And we say, Lord, save your people, bless your inheritance,
feed your people, rule your people, Lord, and lift them up, sustain
them and carry them forever. Lord, hear our Hear our Mediator. Hear Him. Look to Him. Behold
His righteousness, His holiness. Behold the work He's accomplished
for us. Behold the nail prints in His
hand. Behold His wounded side. We need You to bless us for His
sake and His sake alone. It's His precious, precious name
we ask these things. Amen.