Well let us turn to God's Word
in the Psalm that we've just read Psalm 75 and I'll read again
verses 6 and 7 Psalm 75 verses 6 and 7 For promotion cometh
neither from the east nor from the west nor from the south but
God is the judge He putteth down one and setteth up another."
Considering in particular those words that we have in the seventh
verse about God is the judge. He putteth down one and setteth
up another. We are told in the New Testament
that the Father judges no man but hath committed all judgment
unto the son and it is the son who is being spoken of and speaking
in this particular psalm he is that one then who is to judge
all things that is the father's goodwill and pleasure the father
judges no man but in the day of grace and through to the great
day of judgment all judgment is committed into the hands of
him who is the promised one the messiah the christ but god is
the judge and so to say something with regards to the lord jesus
christ in this particular office we often speak of the offices
of the Lord Jesus, we think of those principal offices, prophets,
priests, and king, but he is also the judge. And I want us
to consider that truth with regards to the present day as well as
that solemn day that is yet to come, the great day of the Lord,
the day of judgment. But here we see quite clearly
that the statement in the verse is dealing with the present,
it's a present tense. He putteth down one and setteth
up another. This is a work that the Lord
is doing even in the day in which we're living and He is known,
He is seen in all these works as we see in the opening verse
for that thy name is near thy wondrous works declare we know
that as Christ is appointed as that one who is the judge over
all things so he is head over all things to the church God
hath put all things under his feet and given him to be the
head over all things to the church which is his fullness the fullness
of Him that filleth all in all. And that truth certainly holds
in the works of providence. When the Lord Jesus Christ had
accomplished His work here upon the earth, His obedience in life,
His obedience to the death of the cross, His vindication in
the resurrection from the dead, And then of course, as that one
who will ascend to heaven, he speaks to his disciples there
at the end of Matthew's gospel and reminds them that all power,
all authority is given unto me in heaven and in earth. That
is a truth then that holds in this day of grace. So all things
that occur in the lives of all peoples is under the Lord Jesus
Christ. Promotion cometh neither from
the east, nor from the west, nor from the south, but God is
the judge. And what does it say previously
in the third verse? The earth and all the inhabitants
thereof are dissolved. I bear up the pillars of it. Selah. Aren't these the words
of the Lord Jesus, that one to whom that power and that authority
has been committed that one who upholds all things by the word
of his power that one in whom we live and move and have our
being we're not to lose sight of the fact that he who is the
savior of sinners is that one who is also God the Son equal
to the Father and to the Holy Spirit and how We see him speaking
there in that great 8th chapter of the book of Proverbs, revealed
to us as the wisdom of God. He declares plainly by me kings
reign and princes decree justice. By me princes rule even all the
nobles of the earth. He is that one then who is a
wise judge executing his judgments even in these days when there
are changes amongst the nations, when there are changes in the
nations. Aren't these changes in high
places all under His sovereign hands? How He answers His people
by terrible things in righteousness. We're to recognize then His sovereignty
over all things. but ultimately he's over all
things for the church and it's that work of grace surely that
is being spoken of here in the seventh verse where we read how
he put us down one and set us up another how his work is ever
always has been a discriminating ministry The idea of lifting
up is so emphatic really in this particular psalm we see that
we have the statement twice there in verses 4 and 5 I said unto
the fools deal not foolishly and to the wicked lift not up
the horn lift not up your horn on high speak not with a stiff
neck The horn, of course, is symbolic. It's symbolic of power
and of strength. And the reference is to those
mighty ones of the earth who might set themselves against
the Lord's Christ, as we're told in the Second Psalm, how they
imagine vain things, how they deny Him and they deny His sovereignty. but how he declares quite plainly
at the end of the psalm all the horns of the wicked also will
I cut off but the horns of the righteous shall be exalted. When we think then of the horn
and how in scripture it's so symbolic of the strength of the
animal That's that idea, therefore, of power and might and even authority. And then, when we come to the
book of the Revelation, we read of that lamb, as it had been
slain, having seven horns. and so symbolic, the number seven,
the perfection of his strength and his power. This is the Lord
Jesus Christ. What are the horns of the earth
compared with him who is that one who is the judge over all
things? God is the judge. God is the
judge, declares the word of our text. And we know how God's power
is evidenced in the sovereignty of his grace. And we have that
figure also in Scripture. We find it in the 9th chapter
of Romans concerning that one who is the potter who has sovereignty
over the clay by which he will make the vessel to his own pleasing. You're familiar with the passage
there in Romans 9.21, have not the potter power over the clay
of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour and another
unto dishonour what if God willing to show his wrath and to make
his power known endured with much long-suffering the vessels
of wrath fitted to destruction and that he might make known
the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he had
afore prepared unto glory that double predestination that is
so plainly stated in that text that He is that One you see He
puteth down one and seteth up another He is continually executing
His authority as that One who is the Righteous Judge of all
men Christ is the Judge and we have already referred to the
words of the of John chapter 5 and that that judgment has
been committed to the Christ in the in the day of grace and
there's a double verily there in verse 25 of that chapter verily
verily I say unto you the hour is coming and now is when the
dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that
hear shall live For as the Father hath life in himself, so hath
he given to the Son to have life in himself, and hath given him
authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of
Man." So it is as the Son of Man, as the Messiah then, that
even in this day sets up one, puts down another, executes then
God's eternal decree, the putterers ordain things,
as we see in that passage back in John chapter 5. And when John
the Baptist, who comes as the forerunner, the harbinger of
the Lord Jesus Christ, how John speaks of the Lord's ministry,
and it's the day of grace, it's the present time, whose fan is
in his hand, and he will surely purge his floor and gather the
wheat into the garden. and burn up the chaff with unquenchable
fire and then he says in the next verse, then cometh Jesus those words in Matthew 3.12 are
an introduction to that one who is about to appear and enter
into his public ministry and he comes as that one who will
exercise such a discriminating ministry here or rather there in verse 12 we
read of his floor whose fan is in his hand and he will throughly
purge his floor his floor and what is the reference there?
well the reference is to Israel and Israel of course really a
type of the spiritual Israel, the church going in the language of the
Old Testament Isaiah 21 and verse 10 God says all my threshing
and the corn of my floor and how God in the Old Testament
was ever sifting his people dealing with them in his providences
testing them, trying them, chastising them Amos chapter 9 and verse 9, Lo,
I will command and I will sift the house of Israel among all
nations, he says. Like as corn is sifted in a sieve,
yet shall not one grain of corn fall to the ground. God would
ever preserve His true spiritual people in the midst of Israel,
even when He was dealing with them in the way of judgments.
And of course we read of those things time and again, throughout
the Old Testament Scriptures, be it the days of the judges,
when God would send terrible judgment and then raise up deliverance,
or be it the days of the kings. There were those wicked kings
when God would come and He would judge the people because of what
had been brought in by those men who were so alienated from
their God. All God's time and again would
be sifting His people We refer just now to the Baptist ministry. We know how John's own ministry
was certainly a searching ministry. How he addresses those who are
coming to his ministry, to his baptisings. The language that
we have in the third chapter of Matthew. 7 When John saw many of the Pharisees
and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation
of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
Bring forth therefore fruits, meat for repentance. 8 And think
not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father.
For I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise
up children unto Abraham. And then again he speaks of Christ
now. Also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees. Therefore
every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down
and cast into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water
unto repentance, but he that cometh after me is mightier than
I. Whose shoes I am not worthy to bear, he shall baptize you
with the Holy Ghost and with fire. Oh, John's ministry is
so discriminating. So direct, and yet, what is it
as compared with the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ? Time
and again, as we've said many a time, in John's account, in
John's Gospel, we read of divisions because of him. Divisions because
of his words. And when we come to the end of
that great sixth chapter of John where remember at the beginning
he performs the miracle the feeding of the 5,000 and how the people
want to take him and make him king and then his ministry throughout
that chapter so searching as he speaks of himself as the bread
of life and also speaks of the sovereignty of God in salvation
when we come to the end he says therefore said I unto you that
no man can come to me except the Father that sent me draw
him. And we're told from that time many went back and walked
no more with him. Many went back. His ministry
came too close to them. They didn't like the idea of
God's sovereignty. They didn't like the idea of
having to have that spiritual relationship with the Lord Jesus
Christ as that one who is indeed the very bread of life. All his
ministry then even in the Day of Grace as we have it recorded
there in the Gospels. Our judgment is being made in
the consciences of men. He takes forth the precious from
the vial. Isn't that the mark of the true prophet of the Lord?
Jeremiah 15, 19, If thou take forth the precious from the vial,
thou shalt be as my mouth, or the mouth of the Lord Jesus.
All the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins
and the heart says the Lord in that letter that's addressed
to the church of Thyatira in Revelation 2. He is that one then who is the
judge and he puts down and he sets up and that's necessary
and it's necessary for for two reasons a negative and a positive
in his ministry does he not expose the empty professors we just
refer to those words of John the Baptist in Matthew 3 think
not to say within yourselves how significant is that expression
they were saying within themselves we have Abraham to our father,
they were congratulating themselves because they were the physical
descendants of Abraham that they were deluding themselves
just like that man that the Lord speaks of in in Luke 18 who goes
into the temple that Pharisee, he goes in at the same time as
the publican But what does the Lord say concerning the Pharisee? He prayed thus with himself.
I thank that I am not as other men are. Just like those that
John is addressing, saying, say not within yourselves. All these
people, they delude themselves. But the Lord by his ministry
will seek them out and search them out. He says, doesn't he,
there at the end of John 9, after giving sight to the man born
blind, and they cast him out of the synagogue, and the Lord
had met him and spoken to him, and he'd confessed Christ to
be the Son of God. And then at the end of that chapter,
he turns to the Pharisees, if you were blind, you should have
no sin. But now you say, we see. Therefore your sin remaineth.
They deluded themselves. like that church at Sardis in
the revelation they have to name that they live us and are dead and so here in the psalm verse
4 I said unto the fools deal not foolishly and to the wicked
lift not up the whore God is the judge he puteth down one
and seteth up another But there's not only the negative side where
he deals with those self-righteous people, the Pharisees in particular,
but the Lord's ministry is also such as to encourage those who
are his true followers, his real disciples. Doesn't that faith
that is real desire that it might be searched out and sifted that was the fate of David as
we see it at the end of Psalm 139 search me O God, he says
and know my heart try me and know my thoughts and see if there
be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting he
doesn't want to fool himself or delude himself in any way
And it's not just there. We have it on other occasions
in the psalm. Psalm 26 and verse 2. Examine
me, O Lord, and prove me. Try my reins in my heart. This is the language of the godly
man. He wants to know that what he
has is something true, genuine, real. The work of God. only he that makes the world
is able to make a real Christian Job Job there in chapter 31 and
verse 6 says let me be weighed in an even balance that God may
know my integrity ought to be those who are bearing that mark
of the true disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. Puritan John
Flavel says false grace is shy of God's eye, it cares not to
be examined. That's false. False religion,
false grace, it's shy, it doesn't want to be examined. That's the fate of the Pharisees. Everyone that doeth evil hath
a delight, neither cometh to the light, lest his deed should
be we prove but either do us truth cometh to the light that
his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God
God is the judge and there is judgment made in
the day of grace and it's made every time God's word is opened
and read and preached, is it not? Is it not the Puritan John
Owen who said that a man is never the same after hearing God's
words being proclaimed it's either for him or against him God is
the judge he put it down one and set it up another but when
we think of the Lord Jesus Christ as that one to whom all judgment
is committed how evident it will be in the last day the great
day verse 8 we are told for in the hand of the Lord there is
a cup The wine is red, it is full of mixture, and he poureth
out the same. But the dregs thereof, all the
wicked of the earth, shall wring them out and drink there. In that passage in John 5, the
Lord doesn't only speak of the present, he also speaks of the
future, he speaks of the last day, doesn't he? Remember the
words of Matthew 5? 26 As the father hath life in himself,
so hath he given to the son to have life in himself, and hath
given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is
the son of man. 27 Marvel not at this! For the
hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall
hear his voice, and shall come forth, they that have done good,
unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil,
unto the resurrection of damnation. And we know how the Lord repeatedly
will speak of that great day. The solemn portions that we have
in the Gospels, Matthew 25 for example. Verse 31, When the Son of Man
shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him,
then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory. And before him
shall be gathered all nations, and he shall separate them one
from another, as the shepherd divided his sheep from the goats.
And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats
on the left. And what does he say to those
on the right hand? Come, ye blessed of my Father.
Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
the world. in contrast verse 41 then shall
he say also unto them on the left hand depart from me ye cursed
into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels
he put it down one he set it up another he will burn up the
chaff with unquenchable fire oh it's a fire that never goes
out It's not annihilation, is it? It's that awful place where
their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. The Lord
Jesus Christ is that one who is the Judge, or that one who
is also the Lamb of God, slain from the foundation of the world.
The offices of the Lord Jesus, the glory that belongs to the
Lord Jesus Christ, as I said at the beginning we
oft speak of him in that threefold office but we're not to lose
sight of that one who is being spoken of here in our text that
he might come and pass judgment in all of our consciences that
we might have that real spirit of David the man after God's
own heart search me O God know my thoughts, try me, know my
range see if there be any wicked way in me lead me in the way
everlasting. Promotion cometh neither from
the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is
the judge. He putteth down one, and setteth
up another. O the Lord, own and bless the
truth of His Word to us. Let us, before we come to praise,
sing our second praise in the hymn 126. I'll speak the honours
of my King, his form divinely fair. None of the sons of mortal
race may with the Lord compare. The tune is Southwell 259. Hymn 126. I'll be back.