I want you to turn with me to
the 85th Psalm, if you would please, Psalm chapter 85. And
while you're turning, let me read to you a verse in Luke chapter
24, verse 44. Here the Lord Jesus said, these
are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you,
that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law
of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning
me. On Wednesday evenings, we've
gone through the first two books of Moses. We've studied through
Genesis and Exodus. And now we've started a study
in the book of Numbers. And one thing that has become
very apparent, so apparent in these studies, is the things
written by Moses is concerning Jesus Christ. We have seen pictures
and types of Christ all through both of the books, and I have
no doubt that we'll see the same in the book of Numbers. Jesus
Christ, just to give you a few, He was the light of the world
in creation. God said, let there be light,
and there was light. And if God doesn't speak to our
void hearts, our formless and dark hearts, there's no hope
for us, no light to be given. Christ was the skin covering
for Adam and Eve. He was the promised seed of the
woman. He was the lamb that Abel offered.
He was the ark that Noah built. He was the ram substituted for
Isaac and he was Jacob's ladder. There's no access to God, but
by him. Christ was and he is the Passover
lamb. Those who have the blood upon
the door of their hearts, God will pass over. He's the pillar
of cloud and fire that leads us. He's the manna from heaven.
He's the rock that was smitten. He's the tabernacle. He's the
high priest. He's the ark of the covenant.
He's the mercy seat. He's the brazen serpent. He's
the cities of refuge. He's the kinsman redeemer. And
we could just go on and on. All that was written in the law
of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms are concerning
Jesus Christ. Okay, you've got Psalm 85. I
want you to look at how verse one begins. Lord. Lord. That's where it all begins,
isn't it? It all begins with Him. And anytime we see the name
or the title, Lord, all capitalized, it means Jehovah. It means God,
my Savior. It means the all-sufficient one,
the self-existent one, the eternal one. As I told you last week,
it means the undisputed ruler. the sovereign supreme potentate. He's the first cause of all things
in the beginning, God. All things pertain to the grace
of God. All things concerning salvation
begin with the Lord. This is the gospel of Psalms,
the gospel that David preached, and it's concerning Jesus Christ. Recently, I ran across a verse
of scripture in Zephaniah chapter three, verse nine. I'd like to
read it to you. And this no doubt speaks of the
gospel given to the Jew and the Gentile alike. The Lord in that
scripture says, for then will I turn to the people a pure language
that they may all call upon the name of the Lord to serve him
with one consent. That's talking about the gospel,
the language of God's Son, the language of grace. And that's
what I see in these verses before us this morning, the language
of grace, which is the gospel concerning the Lord Jesus Christ.
And this is the way the language of grace speaks. Look at verse
one, Lord, thou has been favorable. The Lord has been favorable. Now that word favorable, it's
a beautiful word. Lord, thou has been pleased.
You've been satisfied. You've accepted. You've approved. You've pardoned. Lord, you've
been pleased to save sinners. Lord, you have accepted a sinner
like me. Lord, you've approved and you've
pardoned and you have brought back the captivity of Jacob. Meaning you've brought the sons
of Jacob back from captivity. Wherefore by one man, sin entered
into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all
men. Death passed upon all women for
all that have sinned. Now the word captivity means
prisoner. By nature, we're prisoners of
sin. We're in captivity to sin. being sold under sin, being in
captivity to sin, we, in the lust of our flesh, fulfilled
the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and we were by nature,
the children of wrath, even as others. By nature, friends, we're
in trouble. We're in trouble. I hope the
Lord shows you that if he hasn't already. Is there any hope of
restoration for us? Is there any means of reconciliation? Yes, thou has brought us back. Not that we've returned in and
of our own, but Lord, thou has brought us back. This is the
language of grace. For Christ also hath once suffered
for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. How? By being put to death in
the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. Jesus Christ has brought
us back from the captivity of Jacob. What is the cause? What is the reason? He has been
favorable. It all goes back to him. Lord,
Lord. Now put your marker here in Psalm
85 and look back a few pages to Psalm 30, if you would please.
I want you to see this. Psalm chapter 30, we'll come
right back to Psalm 85, but look at verse three here in Psalm
30. Psalm chapter 30, verse three. "'O Lord, thou hast brought up
my soul from the grave. "'Thou has kept me alive, "'that
I should not go down to the pit.'" Now who brought our souls up
from the grave? Who's kept us alive that we should
not go down? The Lord, the Lord, the one and
the only Lord Jehovah. Look at verse four. "'Sing unto
the Lord, O ye saints of His, "'and give thanks at the remembrance
of His holiness. "'For His anger endureth but
a moment. Now look at this, in his favor
is life. He's been favorable to us and
in his favor is life. Weeping may endure for a night,
but joy cometh in the morning. And friends, this is the language
of grace. This is the language of the gospel. In his favor is life. I want to be found in his favor,
don't you? Lord, thou has been favorable. Thank God that he
has. Now we didn't love Him, He first
loved us. We didn't choose Him, He first
chose us. He's been favorable. God has
brought us back. He's restored us. He has reconciled
us. He's redeemed us from our captivity. He has delivered us from sin.
And this is the gospel. This is the language of grace.
Now back in Psalm 85, I want you to look at verse two. Thou
has forgiven the iniquity of thy people. Thou has covered
all their sin. Now, if you're a sinner, that'll
mean something to you. Men and women talk about the
forgiveness of sin, never considering what it took for God to forgive
his people from their sin. We say this all the time. I'm
not sure we ever fully grasp it as we should, but sin can't
be simply forgiven and forgotten. Can't be. No, it's got to be
dealt with. Why? Because the wages of sin
is death. The soul that sins, it shall
surely die. How many times have you heard
that? Do you believe it? Sin has to be dealt with in a
way of justice. Job asked this question in Job
chapter nine. This question is the heart of
God's divine justice. We'll never see our need of Christ
until we see this. Job said, I know so of a truth. What did Job know that was true?
He knew that God was holy and that God was just. And he knew
that in order to save a sinner like he was, God could not pervert
justice and judgment. Job knew that God was just and
holy in all his ways and all his works. And Job said, I know
this is true, but how should man be just with God? That is a vital question. If
you have a marginal Bible, you may see that it reads, how should
man be just before God? How is an ungodly sinner going
to be made perfectly just, holy and righteous before God? That's
the question, that's the issue. The law says that sin must be
punished and that the sinner must die. A sinner must be perfect
in order to be accepted by God and all have sinned, so all must
die. That's what holy justice requires. Men and women treat
sin more as a misfortune or a mistake than a crime. We don't mind having
our sin called a weakness or even a sickness, but you call
it what it is. You call it wickedness. You call
it depravity and men and women to get fighting mad. You see,
we believe our sin to be more a case for a physician than a
case for a judge. Men argue that God has no pleasure
in the death of a wicked, Ezekiel 33 11, which by the way is true. He doesn't find pleasure in the
death of the wicked, but it's equally true that the soul that's
in it, it shall die. Now this is where our problem
lies. The judicial side of God's law and justice must deal with
the sinner's sin, the sinner's state and condition before God.
God can forgive sin, but not at the expense of His law and
His justice. God's law and God's love must
be reconciled, somehow, someway. One cannot give way to the other.
Not one jot or tittle can be surrendered by either side. The
law and all its severity must be fulfilled. It must be kept
and grace and all its love must be applied. Therefore, how can
a man or how should a man be just before God? They both have
to be at peace with each other. And this is why the gospel is
so glorious, because love has never been more lovely and grace
has never been more gracious than when Christ, God the Son,
fulfilled and satisfied the demands of God's law and God's justice
in the chosen sinner's place. That's why we preach substitution. That's why we say all the time
that salvation is God doing for us what we couldn't do for ourselves. And I reiterate that word couldn't. We couldn't do what God requires. How can a man be just before
God? This is a reconciliation with no compromise. God's honor
got to be maintained. And yet God's elect must be redeemed. God's law will not excuse our
sin. God's justice will not look the
other way. We cannot provide what God requires,
so we must find someone who can. Oh, I know someone who can. I'm
here to testify on his behalf. That one is none other than God
himself. In Christ, God's law and God's
love are reconciled. Again, verse two, in Christ,
God has forgiven the iniquity of thy people. God has covered
all their sin. Whose sin? All his people. He
said, all thy people. How much of their sin and iniquity
has been forgiven and covered? All of it. All their sin. Every single sin. And not only
every past sin or every present sin, but every future sin. It's
here that the psalmist says, Selah. That word means pause. Pause there for a moment. Think
about that. Dwell on that. Say it again and
again. God has forgiven the iniquity
of His people. God has covered all their sin. Do you know what that means?
It means that you're just before God. This is the only way a sinner
can be. Christ's blood. is sufficient
to make us just and holy before God. Not that we're sufficient
of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency
is in God, Paul said. Paul cried unto the Lord three
times for the Lord to take away a thorn in his flesh. And the
Lord told him, my grace is sufficient for thee. For my strength is
made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, Paul
said, will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power
of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in
infirmities." What? That's right. We take pleasure
in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions,
in distress for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then am I
strong. This is the beautiful thing about
substitution. God's grace in Christ is always,
always sufficient for us. Our strength, which is non-existent. Let's just face it, we're without
strength. It's made perfect in weakness.
It's in our infirmities, in our weaknesses, that Christ's power
rests upon us and makes us strong. And because of that, we take
pleasure in our inability. For in our inability, we see
Christ's ability. And we're made perfect in our
weakness. That's substitution. What a blessing
to be rid of your iniquity. Isaiah said it this way, your
iniquities have separated between you and your God and your sins
have hid His face from you that He will not hear. That sounds
pretty hopeless to me. And it's because of our sin.
Our iniquities like the wind have taken us away, but He was
wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. Who was? Christ was. and the
chastisement of our peace was upon him. And with his stripes,
we are healed." Isaiah 53, 5. This is the gospel, friends.
This is the language of grace. God is satisfied. By his knowledge
shall my righteous servant justify many. He didn't say all, I'll
just throw that in. He said many. For he shall bear
their iniquities, And the language of grace continues. Look at verse
three in Psalm 85. Thou has taken away all thy wrath. Thou has turned thyself from
the fierceness of thine anger. You know, I'm convinced that
we do not give much thought to this, but it is a fearful thing
to fall into the hands of the living God. If you're still in
your sin and not in Christ, it's a fearful thing to fall in the
hands of an angry God. God is angry with the wicked
every day. But did you know that that passage
of scripture in Psalm chapter seven goes on to say, if he turned
not, speaking of God, if he turned not, if God doesn't have mercy,
he'll wet his sword and he has bent his bow and he made it ready. He had also prepared for him
and her, speaking of the wicked, the instruments of death. Ah,
a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living and angry
God. The anger and wrath of God is
a fearful thing. Now listen to this verse in Deuteronomy
chapter 28, verse 20. To the wicked unbeliever, God
says, the Lord shall send upon thee cursing and vexation and
rebuke and all that thou settest thy hand for you to do until
thou be destroyed and until thou perish quickly. because of the
wickedness of your doings whereby thou hast forsaken me." Now,
you're probably sitting there asking yourself, is the preacher
trying to scare us? I'm trying to warn you. It's
a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God. And
the Bible goes on and on about the wrath of God and the anger
of God. John 3, verse 35 tells us that,
he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he
that believeth not the Son shall not see life. But it doesn't
stop there. That verse says, but the wrath
of God abideth on him. There's a consequence to unbelief.
This is the language of judgment. This is the language of holy
justice. But the language of grace, oh,
don't you love the sound? How sweet the sound. Verse three,
thou has taken away all thy wrath. Thou has turned thyself from
the fierceness of thine anger. Child of God, God is no longer
angry with you. He's pleased with you. And his
beloved son, the word of God says thou has turned Why do people
think that we turned God? He turned himself from the fierceness
of his anger. God's not angry with us for one
reason. It's because our sin is gone.
And our sin is gone because Christ took our sin upon himself and
he paid its wages of death. The Lord Jesus upon the cross,
he cried, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Well,
he had no sin of his own that God would forsake him. What separated
him from God? Your sin, my sin, all the sin
of all the elect throughout all time. Our salvation is a free
gift to us, but friends, it costs God his son. It calls God his
son. God's been favorable to his people. You know, that's past tense.
When was he favorable to us? Before the foundation of the
world. When he gave us to Christ. That is the language of grace. That's the language of the gospel.
Now, look at verse four. It just keeps getting better.
I want you to think about this. The psalmist says here, turn
us, oh God, of our salvation and cause thine anger toward
us to cease. Salvation consists not only of
God turning His wrath away from us, but it also consists of turning
our wrath away from Him. You think about that. God turns
our anger and our hatred for Him, and we hated Him without
a cause, by the way, but He turns our anger and our hatred for
Him, takes it away, causing His anger against us to cease. Jeremiah
said, turn thou me and I shall be turned, for thou are the Lord
my God. And we can't turn ourselves,
only God can turn us. But then Jeremiah said this,
surely after that I was turned, I repented. And after that, I
was instructed. This is the process of grace.
God turns us, we repent, we're instructed. That's how we grow
in the grace and in the knowledge of the Lord. It all begins with
God turning us to Him. The salvation of the righteous
is of the Lord. In other words, He turns them.
With them, He's no longer angry. He's the God of our salvation.
Look at verse five. The psalmist asks, wilt thou
be angry with us forever? Wilt thou draw out thy anger
to all generations? Let me tell you, not to all he
won't. To some he will, but not to all. God's gonna have mercy
on some. Who are they? Well, I know this,
they are those whom God foreknew and predestinated to be conformed
to the image of his son. They are those whom He called
by grace and justified in Christ. They are those whom He will glorify
forever to be without sin. Verse six, wilt thou not revive
us again that thy people may rejoice in thee? Now that word
revive means to restore. It means to repair. It means
to recover. It means to make alive and to
make whole. Now, if someone is revived, it
means they were dead. A man dies on the operating table. If he's revived, that means he's
brought back to life. They've done something to save
him. If someone or something is repaired,
it means that it was broken. If someone is refreshed, it means
that they had deteriorated. If someone is restored, it means
that they've fallen away. All those things apply to us,
the believer. We've been revived, we've been
repaired, we've been refreshed, we've been restored. Is this
talking about the whole world? No. Is this referring to every
sinner? No, this is talking about reviving
His people, those that He loved, those that He gave Himself for.
Very specific as to whom it refers, that thy people may rejoice in
Him. Christ shall save His people
from their sin, Matthew 1.21. Preacher, why do you always bring
that up? Why do you always point that
out? I didn't. God did. Friends, not
everyone's gonna be saved. Only those who love and trust
in Christ, God's beloved Son. Only those whom God has been
favorable to. Only those whom God hath brought
back from captivity. Only those God has forgiven their
iniquity. Only those God has covered their
sin. Only those whom God has removed
his wrath. Only those whom God has turned
himself and his wrath from. Only those that God turns. Only
those that He ceases to be angry with. Only those that He revives,
restores, and refreshes. That sounds like the gospel to
me. And when He does all these things, the result with them
is that they rejoice. I'm rejoicing this morning. What
are we rejoicing in? All the things I just mentioned.
But their real rejoicing is in thee. It's in the object of the
one that we place our trust in. I'm rejoicing in Christ. I'm
rejoicing in what he's done for me. He is my just God and Savior. And this is the language of grace. Isaiah 61 10 says, I will greatly
rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my
God, for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation. He
hath covered me with the robe of righteousness. As a bridegroom
decketh himself with ornaments, as a bride adorneth herself with
jewels. In verse seven here of our text,
we have the only reason that any child of God is saved. He
says, show us thy mercy, O Lord, and grant us thy salvation. I just love the language of Scripture. What proof this is that salvation
is not by works. not by works of righteousness
that we've done, not by any merit done by us, not by any reward
that we deserve. He says, show us thy mercy. This is His mercy. He's the one
that's merciful. It's his to show, it's his mercy
to give. He says, grant us thy salvation. It's his salvation to grant.
The word grant means to bestow, apply, and appoint. How can any,
seriously, how can any deny the salvations of the Lord? It's
his mercy that he gives. It's his salvation that he grants. This is God's glory. Do you want
to see God's glory like Moses did? Here it is. God said, I
will be gracious. Who are you going to be gracious
to, Lord? To whom I'll be gracious. My mercy is mine to give. Salvation
is mine to bestow. Is it not lawful for me to do
what I will with my own? Salvation is not man's decision. It's God's glorious decision.
God says, my glory is, I will show mercy. And he doesn't have
to show mercy. It will make him no less God,
no less a merciful God, if he didn't show any of us mercy.
He purposes to show mercy. On whom, Lord, will you show
mercy? And the Lord says, on whosoever
I will. It's my prerogative, it's my
glory. And you can sing, and boy, I
have many of a time. You can sing, I have decided
to follow Jesus, but you're singing a lie. If you decided it's because
he decided, we ought to change the words to hymn 397. It's in
our book. We ought to change the words
to God has decided that I follow Jesus. That would be more scriptural,
wouldn't it? This is the language of the gospel.
This is the language of grace. Show us thy mercy. Lord, we can't
see it unless you show it. We can't believe it unless you
reveal it. Others have seen thy mercy. Show it to us. You showed
it to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Show it to me. Look at verse eight. This is
the desire of every God called sinner. The psalmist says, I
will hear what God the Lord will speak. Are you interested in
hearing from God? For he will speak peace unto
his people. Oh, that's the message I want
to hear. Peace between God and me. He'll speak peace to his
people and to his saints, but let them not turn again to folly.
You know, the proper place for a mercy beggar, and that's what
God's people are. Mercy beggars is at the feet
of Christ, but as a listener, just like Mary, we must choose
the good part that can never be taken away from us. I want
to sit at his feet and learn from him. Show us the mercy that
washed away our sin. Show us the mercy that covers
our nakedness. I will hear what God the Lord
will speak. And I know this much, He's gonna
speak peace. He's gonna speak peace to this
troubled heart and this troubled soul. Who's He gonna speak it
to? To His people, to His saints. All the Jews, they sought His
miracles, but they wouldn't hear His gospel. It's the same today. Men seek God for everything but
redemption. Men want to hear anything and
everything but the truth of the gospel. Men cry, peace, peace,
when there is no peace. There is no peace until the wicked,
the way of peace they have not known, Romans 3 17. Christ said,
my sheep hear my voice. Do you hear his voice? You won't
have any peace until he speaks peace to you. And when God speaks
peace, men won't return to folly. They won't. Verse nine, surely
His salvation is nigh them that fear Him, that glory may dwell
in our land. Again, it's His salvation. It's
for those who fear Him. It's for those who revere and
worship Him. That's what that word fear there
means. It means reverential respect. And again, in verse 10, we find
the gospel. Mercy and truth are met together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other, but it's only in Christ that they have. And
again, I remind you that God's justice will not permit the pardon
of justification of a sinner without satisfaction. God's gotta
be satisfied before anybody is ever justified. And that's why
Christ was made to be a propitiation for our sin. You see, he's the
only one that God is satisfied with. And he declared it from
heaven himself. He said, this is my beloved son
in whom I am well pleased. Here ye him. The truth is in
and of myself, I have no righteousness. With no righteousness, there's
no mercy. No mercy for me. But if I have
the righteousness of Christ, then mercy and the truth of God's
love have met together in perfect harmony. Mercy and truth met
together in Christ. God will make peace, but he must
be just in doing so. God will manifest his love, but
he must punish sin. He punished my sin and my substitute. He who loved me, laid down his
life, gave himself for me, and God is satisfied. And our Lord
said from the cross, it's finished. God is pleased with the sinner
that's found in Christ. Only in Christ, mercy and truth
are met together, and only in his death, righteousness and
peace kiss each other. It's only in Christ that I have
the perfect righteousness that can satisfy God's law and appease
His holy justice so that my perfect righteousness can kiss the peace
of God. That peace that passes all understanding. I can't explain it. It passes
all understanding. I don't understand it. But it's
the most wonderful thing in all the world And friends, this is
the language of the gospel. This is the language of the grace
of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now look at verse 11 and I'll
finish. Truth shall spring out of the earth and righteousness
shall look down from heaven. That has to be Christ. That has
to be Him. Truth has sprung out of the earth. God was made a man and dwelt
among us. Truth sprang forth from a virgin. Truth was born in Bethlehem.
Truth walked this earth doing good. He did so much good that
if all the things were recorded good that he did, the world couldn't
contain the books they'd be written in. Truth died on a cross. Truth rose from the dead. Truth
ascended on high into heaven's glory and mercy and truth met
together in him. Now righteousness looks down
from heaven. And the righteousness of the
believer and the peace of God have kissed each other. Boy,
I just love to even think about that. And God and the chosen
sinner are now reconciled and have peace with one another.
This is the gospel. This is the language of grace.