All right, brethren, let's go
to Psalm 85. Psalm 85. There's four divisions that we're
gonna use that the Lord gives us in understanding this Psalm. First, there is the witness of
past mercies. And the feeling sinner, the one
whom the Lord makes to know this, they feel their need of these
past mercies that are declared in this psalm. And then there's
the prayer for personal mercies. I need this. As we understand
this salvation that the Lord declares, that sinner is made
to know I need this salvation. I need these mercies for me. Then there is the waiting for
His word. We're looking not for a fleshly
confirmation, we look for the Lord to confirm His salvation
is for me, that He did this for me. And then there is the Lord's
blessing, that is the Lord declares Christ crucified to His child. He makes them to hear what Christ
has done for them and gives them that faith being made effectual
to them. So this psalm begins with a reflection
on what the Lord has done for his chosen people. It recounts
what the Lord has accomplished in his salvation and done for
them, and this is a very common theme throughout scripture. The Lord is constantly declaring
to his people what he's done for them. Psalm 103 verses 2-4
says, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits,
who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases,
who redeemeth thy life from destruction, who crowneth thee with lovingkindness
and tender mercies. And so the Lord makes known to
his people what he has done for them through the Lord Jesus Christ. He declares this because it's
the gospel. It's the good news of what God
has done for sinners. And he declares that because
that's how the Lord teaches his people. He makes them to know
that's the salvation that I need. I need that grace. I need that
mercy that God does for his people. And since he's the one who does
it, I need to go to him. I need to seek him for this grace
and mercy. Now, Psalm 85, was written at
a time, it was written between the captivities, between the
captivity in Egypt and the captivity in Babylon. It was written during
the time of King David, during the time when Israel was going
through many wars, the captivities and the troubles that they received
from the Philistines. The Philistines were a nation
that was constantly at war with Israel during the days of King
David and leading up to his kingship. Now it says, well, and remember
the Philistines are a picture of the sins in my flesh. They're a picture of the sins
in your flesh, warring against the truth, bringing you into
captivity, in darkness, and in bondage, and laboring under dead
things that cannot save. And so that's what they picture.
Now, let's read in verse one, Psalm 85, one. Lord, thou hast
been favorable unto thy land. Thou hast brought back the captivity
of Jacob. Now these words hold as much
meaning for you that believe the Lord and for us in this day,
it holds as much meaning as it did for Israel back when it was
first written. The land spoken of in verse 1
speaks to the Lord's inheritance. It's pictured in the promised
land of inheritance which was given to Israel. Moses said of
this land, he called it, that good land, which the Lord thy
God giveth thee for an inheritance. But this land is a picture of
the Lord's people, because the Lord's people are his inheritance. And the Lord is our inheritance. That's what it's speaking of.
That land speaks of the inheritance of the Lord. He said to his Christ,
ask of me and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance
and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. He's talking to Christ about
the inheritance that he gives him, and he is our inheritance. But the emphasis here in verse
one speaks of God delivering his inheritance out of the captivity,
out of bondage. And this has to do with the captivity
of trials that believers go into. This is how the scriptures speak
of trials. It calls them a captivity. We read of Job 42 10 and the
Lord turned the captivity of Job. What was Job's captivity? It was that great trial that
Job was brought into by the Lord and the Lord calls it a captivity. Why? Because when that trial
came, everything else ceased. It took Job captive. It took
his thoughts captive. It took his time captive. It
took all his energies captive. Everything ceased. And when we
go through a great trial, everything comes to a halt. Everything is
thinking about this great trial and how much it weighs upon us.
Not every trial, not every problem or difficulty that we come into
is a great trial. There's a lot of things that
we just move through. Oh, I got to get gas before I get to the
store. And that's not a trial. That's not a captivity. That's
an inconvenience. But there are things that do
happen that are a great captivity. And they burden us. And they
cause us to feel how weak and insufficient and incompetent
we are in ourselves and how desperately we need the grace of God to deliver
us. And so Israel, for a long time,
was taken captive, constantly being harassed by the Philistines. And in the same way, we are constantly
harassed and taken captive by the sins of this flesh. In this
nature, in this flesh, it's always at war. It's always at war with
the Philistines of sin. But remember what we saw in Jeremiah
21. Last Tuesday we looked at a message
in Jeremiah 29. I don't think it's posted yet,
but I'll get it up there on Sermon Audio, but it was declared there
that your God is sovereign. He is sovereign and he's the
one who sent the trial. And the meek of the Lord know
that God is sovereign, everything comes to pass by his hand, and
because he sent it, it is good. It's good. Whether I think it's
good or not doesn't matter. It is good because God sent it. God did this. And so we saw how
God is sovereign, he sent the trial, and your God is faithful
to his promises. He gives many wonderful, gracious
promises to his child in the scriptures. And we saw from Jeremiah
29, they are for a set time. The trial is for a set time. The trial is for your good. God
didn't send it for your harm. He's not sent it to do evil.
It might destroy the flesh, but it's not for your harm. It's
for your good. And every trial fits the eternal
purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord, Ephesians
3.11. It's all according to God's eternal
purpose for your good and for the good of his church every
time. And so God purposes for you to
feel your need and to draw you to seek him for mercy. He draws us to seek him and to
cry out to him for mercy and grace. And then when it's all
over, God will deal with your enemies. He'll punish them. He'll
take care of them. You don't have to take care of
them. He'll deal with them as is needed to be dealt with. And
so God brings his child into trials. He brings them into captivities
to break that fleshly confidence that is in us by nature. We're
so confident in ourselves. We're so cocky in our own abilities
and what we can do or not do. We do this. And so the Lord teaches
us and he purposes the trial for our good. And God says that
he'll punish his enemies. All right, so he's making us
to hear what he does for his people. It's to make his child
to see What God has done for his people is what I need. That's
what I need. Look at verse two, Psalm 85, two. Thou has forgiven the iniquity
of thy people. Thou has covered all their sin. Selah. Well, when does that word
of God's forgiveness for sin, when does that sound wonderful? when you're a sinner who needs
that forgiveness. That's when it sounds wonderful,
when you're the sinner. I'm sinful. I'm the one who's
done wickedly against the Lord. And I hear that he forgives his
child. And what did God do to save sinners? He sent his darling son to be
the sacrifice for their sins, to put away their sin, to die
as their substitute in order that they should receive forgiveness
for sins because Christ has covered it and put it away. He's delivered
his people from death and given us life to live in him, not because
of anything we do or don't do, but because he will be gracious
and merciful to his child. Look at verse three. Thou hast
taken away all thy wrath. Thou hast turned thyself from
the fierceness of thine anger. When does that sound wonderful?
When does that sound wonderful? It sounds wonderful when I know
that because of my sins, because of my works, I am under the wrath
of holy God. I have come into judgment with
my creator. and I don't know how to escape
from it. I don't know how to deliver myself from that judgment. We know that our works cannot
save us. They cannot provide for us. Just
think, was God pleased with Adam and Eve when they sewed fig leaves
together? When they sinned and they realized,
I'm naked, and they went and made a covering for them, and
then God summoned them to himself, and they came back, was God pleased
with that? Did he say, huh, look at that
what you did, that's pretty good, that's good, that's good enough,
that'll work. No, God was angry with them, and God cursed them.
Their works were not sufficient. And so that tells us that all
my works, all my fig leaf religion is not going to provide a covering
for my sin. I'm gonna stand before holy God
naked in my own works. And this is why the prophet Isaiah
said, all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. They're filthy rags. They cannot
cover my nakedness. God's not pleased with what I
do. And so the Lord is declaring
in his word that Christ, his Christ whom he sent is the propitiation
by whom God is reconciled to his people. Christ has perpetuated
God. He has appeased God. He has eased the wrath and anger
of God because Christ, our surety, has paid the debt in full, putting
it away by himself. For he hath made him to be sin
for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. 2nd Corinthians 521. All right
now, so having seen what God does, the mercies that God gives
to his people, the sinner is led to cry out to the Lord for
that mercy. He's made to see that's the righteousness
of God. What he's done for his people,
I need that. I need that grace and mercy myself. And so the sinner cries out.
Look at verses four through seven. Psalm 85, four through seven.
Turn us is the cry. Turn us. You've been turned,
Lord. Now turn us. O God of our salvation,
and cause thine anger toward us to cease. Bring us under that
covenant of grace, which you've established in the blood of Christ.
Bring us under that covenant. I don't want to be seen before
you by the covenant of works. Bring me under the covenant of
your grace. Wilt thou be angry with us forever? Wilt thou draw out thine anger
to all generations? Wilt thou not revive us again,
that thy people may rejoice in thee? Show us thy mercy, O Lord,
and grant us thy salvation. What kind of prayer is this?
This is the prayer of the church in every generation. This is the prayer of the church
in every generation. God didn't just save marvelously
by the blood of Christ one generation and then all their children inherit
this salvation through blood lineage. That's not how it works. We need that same salvation. We are taught the same things
that the Lord taught His first child whom He saved. We all must
hear, we all must come under the blood of the Lamb of God. God makes each child to know
their need of Him. through his faithfulness and
making each one to see, I'm the sinner, my flesh is not able
to save me, I need the blessing of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
God makes every one of his children to cry out to him for that grace. Turn over to 2 Thessalonians
2. 2 Thessalonians 2. All right, 2 Thessalonians 2,
verse 13 through 14. Here we see, Paul says, we are
bound to give thanks only to God for you, brethren, beloved
of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you
to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the
truth. God separates his child out and
then causes them to hear this glorious salvation. Look at verse
14. Whereunto, because he purposed
to do this for you, this salvation, he called you by our gospel,
he brought that gospel near and caused you to hear it to the
obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So it was made effectual unto
you. That's grace. That's grace. Because many are called, but
few are chosen. If you are chosen, there is a
gracious work which the Lord your God does for every child
of promise, every child whom He put into Christ before the
foundation of the world, and He calls them to this salvation,
and He's the one that makes this salvation effectual to them. There is a personal need, a personal
need that every child of God has, which past mercies for the
church people in previous generations, his people in previous generations,
those past mercies, that's great for them. I need them today. I'm the sinner. I'm not any better
than they were. I need this same grace and mercy. I need this blood applied to
me, the guilty sinner, the guilty sinful soul. I need my sins washed
by the blood of Christ. The gospel of Jesus Christ is
the declaration of what Christ has accomplished for his people
on the cross, but it must be made personal to you. If you're
his child, he makes you to know personally, I'm the sinner, he's
the savior, I need his grace and mercy. And he brings you
to cry out to him and to call upon him for that same grace
and mercy to be applied to you. You're gonna know it. You're
not just going to assimilate this by being near other believers. You're going to be made to know
I'm the dirty dog, filthy sinner who needs the blood of Jesus
Christ. Lord, please save me. He makes us mercy beggars. Every
one of his children are mercy beggars. And so, The Lord causes his people
to cry out for his mercy, crying out, show us also thy mercy. Now, if it's personal, why does
it say turn us? Why is it used this collective
word us? And that's because no generation
of the church is accepted from this need and work. No generation
is bypassed from needing this to be done for them in their
day. Pass me not, Lord. Don't pass
me by. Don't pass us by. Fall on us. Save us and our children. Save
us and our loved ones. Save your people, Lord, in this
generation. Paul's constant prayer for the
church, recorded in Ephesians 3, Verse 16 is that God would
grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened
with might by His Spirit in the inner man. And going on in the
verses, that Christ may dwell, present tense actively dwell,
in your hearts by faith, that ye, being rooted and grounded
in love, may be able to comprehend, comprehend everything that your
God has done for you in the Lord Jesus Christ freely by His grace. The question becomes, am I one
for whom Christ died on the cross? I personally need that salvation. I need this salvation lest I
die in my sins and face God in my nakedness because my works
are filthy rags that do not cover my nakedness. Now having asked
for grace, we then wait upon the Lord. This is the third point.
Now we wait for the Lord's answer. Verse eight. I will hear what
God, the Lord, will speak. I'm listening, Lord. I've heard
what you've done. I'm crying out for that mercy. I'm listening, Lord, for he will
speak peace unto his people and to his saints, but let them not
turn again to folly. If I'm a child of God, then I'm
going to hear him speak to me because he will speak peace unto
his people and to his saints. None are accepted. If you're
his child, he speaks this peace into your heart. When we're made
to know ourselves the sinner, only God can speak peace to your
heart. When the Lord was showing me
my sin and what a self-righteous Pharisee I was and am in this
flesh when he was showing me that I'm a filthy sinner and
can't save myself, I talked to many people. I was under a false
gospel and I talked to many people and everything they said gave
me no comfort. No comfort. And that's honestly
when I began to see that the Armenian gospel is no gospel
at all, because it was all about what I could do to get peace
in my heart. And I had no faith. I found no
peace in what they said, because no man can speak peace to your
heart. God has to speak peace to your
heart. He's the only one that can show you Christ and what
he accomplished for his child. and to turn you from thinking
there's something you can do or must do and to just rest in
what the Lord Jesus Christ alone has done for his people. Only God can confirm that Christ
loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2 20, only he can
do that. So God promises to give his people
his word. He's the one that puts the cry
in his child, but it's still a wrestling like Jacob. There's
still a wrestling. God appeared to Jacob that night,
at Jacob's ladder, seeing the angels going, up to heaven and
down to earth, which is a picture of Christ, by whom God's grace
is communicated to his child. And Jacob wrestled with the Lord. He wrestled with the Lord all
night. And that's what he does. He causes the child to wrestle
with God in prayer. Lord, save me. He gives you that
cry, that desire. And then he shows you Christ.
And he shows you Christ. And so there's many professors
in the flesh And we know this, we've seen this, we grew up.
I remember my dad saying to me when I began to seek the Lord,
he says, I know you. I've seen plenty of you in my
day, coming and going. Talking big for a while, and
then they fall away. I've seen you, I know you. Yeah,
it struck fear in me, thankfully. It struck fear in my heart, because
we've seen so many for a time, they rejoice in it, and then
they fall away. Whether it's through persecution,
someone making them feel like a fool for thinking what they
think, or because the world, their cares, just grow to such
a level that that becomes more important than the things of
God. And they just gotta take care of the house, or their job,
or their kids, or something. they find something to invest
their time in and the Lord just falls away to the wayside. Those are the ones who turn again
to folly. And that's because the Lord doesn't
speak peace to everyone. Folly in man comforts itself
with man's words. Folly says, oh, this is all I
gotta do and that's it and I've done what I needed to do and
now I can go on living my life, that's great. That's folly, that's
what man convinces himself of foolish things. All men, Paul
said, have not faith. All men have not faith. It's
the gift of God. It's not of this flesh. It's the gift of God, just as
his peace is unto his people and his saints. The Lord must
do it. So the one who stirs The one who is stirred up is
stirred up by the Lord. They're not content with that
vain fleshly hope. It's not just about just believe,
just believe something, just be sincere in it, be committed
to it, do your best and God will be pleased. Absolutely not. That's the faith of this flesh. That's dead works. That's dead
works. We want to know the power of
God. We need to know, Lord, I need
that resurrection power which raised your son from the dead.
That's the power I need. I need to know you by your grace
and mercy, Lord, and we're brought to beg God for that mercy in
Christ. Now the Lord's salvation is evidenced
in his people by the gift of the Holy Spirit who gives them
faith in Christ, whereby they believe and trust him. We believe that Christ's blood
was shed for us. Now that's spoken of in verse
nine. Surely his salvation is nigh or near them that fear him,
that glory may dwell in our land. This is the word which the Lord
speaks, which we're listening for. That brings us to our fourth
point. This peace of God that we seek,
it's not obtained by some random experience that we judge to be
spiritual. It's not just some ethereal thing. Oh, I had a little light of experience,
or I read a verse and it blessed my heart. That's not what I'm
talking about, that's not what the Lord teaches us. God gives
his child faith in the faith of Christ. That is, we behold,
we're made to see the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ to the
Father, and we are made to hear and to know, that is my salvation. He's done everything for me. There's nothing more for me to
do. He's done all the work. My acceptance with God is found
not in something I do or have done or don't do. My acceptance
entirely is found with God in the Lord Jesus Christ. in Christ
alone. If we're going by feelings, we're
going to be messed up. You that are troubled by your
feelings, I'm right there with you. I've been up and down and
all over the place on a roller coaster of feelings. That's not
salvation. My hope is made by God to be
anchored in Christ, to know it's not about how I'm feeling today,
It's about what Christ has done. Always, Lord, keep me looking
to your salvation alone, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, Paul tells us that faith
cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. That's Romans
10, 17. God is telling you that desire
this grace and mercy, that he's the one who gives his child faith. He's the one that gave you the
desire. He's the one that made you to
know that you're a sinner. He's the one that made you to
know that he is salvation. He's the one who gives salvation.
I need him to give it. That's all given by God to his
child. And just as he's taught you that,
so he teaches you, or gives you rather, faith to believe that
what Christ did is sufficient even for me. to put away my sins. He does the whole work. Faithful
is he that calleth you who also will do it. God has begun that
good work in you. He's going to complete it to
the end. If he's shown you you're a sinner,
shown you there's nothing you can do, shown you that you need
his grace and mercy provided in Christ, it's because he gave
it to you. And therefore, he's the one that
gives you that faith that looks to and rests in and has peace
with God in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he does this Where? Under
the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's not just some
religious shenanigans that does it. He does it under the preaching
of the gospel of Christ crucified. And so what does he do? He preaches
that gospel to his people. Look at verse 10. This brings
us into The final stretch of these verses which is the preaching
of Christ to his people. Verse 10, mercy and truth are
met together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. These are gracious words which
meet in the Lord Jesus Christ. everything that God requires
is met together and come upon Christ, the Lamb of God, who
was slain for the sins of his people, who went to the cross
to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves, that debt we cannot
pay. We racked it up, we racked that
debt up, but we can't pay it. Christ came and he paid the debt
in full. All the righteous claims of God,
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. All the
righteous claims of God on us are met together with God's gracious
will and purpose to be merciful and compassionate to His child
in the Lord Jesus Christ. They met right there on Him on
the cross and met there in him. Essentially it's saying this
is the Lamb of God sent by God to justly bear the sins of my
people and thereby he bore their judgment also to obtain for them
a perfect righteousness, a perfect righteousness to obtain for them
peace and reconciliation with God, to have fellowship with
the true and living God, whereby we walk by faith. You feel yourself
weak, you feel yourself insufficient because God has his child walking
by faith, lest we should be puffed up and proud and arrogant in
what we do. No, he makes us to see, Lord,
I ever need what you have done, and that's all I need. If you're
content with him, make me content with him. If you're satisfied
with Christ, let me be satisfied with Christ as you are satisfied
with him. Because what more do you need,
Lord? You've done everything for me,
a worthless, vile sinner. You've done everything for me.
You clothed my naked body with the righteous robe of the Lord
Jesus Christ, amen. Amen, thank you Lord for doing
that and he promises life to his child in the Lord Jesus Christ
His child is made to know that God has done everything and we
rest all our hope in him look at verse 11 now truth shall spring
out of the earth and Righteousness shall look down from heaven again.
God is declaring the gospel to his people and what he's saying
here is God approves it. How do I know God approves what
Christ has done for his people? Because he looked down and raised
him from the dead. Christ sprung out of the earth.
He is raised again, God declaring in that very thing that his people
are justified in Christ, completely. Everything Christ said he came
to do, he did. And we know it because God raised
him from the dead. Now, As we come to verse 12,
Christ's death secured all the gifts for His people. The greatest
of these is the giving of His Holy Spirit to us, who gives
light and salvation to every child who has been reconciled
by Christ to God. He gives his Holy Spirit to bring
the light of this knowledge to us, to bring us, to draw us to
hear that gospel, setting us apart to hear this glorious gospel. He's done this work. There's
nothing more for you or me to do. And hearing what Christ has
done, you either believe. or you don't believe. You either
believe it or you don't believe it. God isn't looking for you
now to raise your hand. He's not waiting to apply that
blood for you first to walk an aisle. He's not looking for you
to say the sinner's prayer with a prayer captain. He's done the
work already. Everything is done by Him. You either believe it or you
don't, because in the hearing of Christ crucified, he either
manifests that faith in you or he doesn't. Either you know this
is the Savior. He is the Savior. That's the
salvation I need. Lord, apply that comfort to my
heart. Lord, let me be covered with
the blood of Christ. Save me by your grace and mercy,
Lord, because there's nothing I can do. The question isn't
what do I need to do for Christ, but has Christ given me faith
that looks to Him and trusts that He is the Savior, that He
is the salvation, that He's the Savior of me, that His blood
availed for me. And that's because the gospel
isn't an open-ended thing. The gospel declares what God
has accomplished in his son for his people. It's already done. So verse 12 says, yea, the Lord
shall give that which is good. And our land, this new man of
faith by inheritance, this land shall yield her increase. In other words, if you're the
Lord, you're going to bear, you're going to manifest those fruits
of the Spirit. Faith. You're going to hear and
believe Him and trust. Even if you're still struggling,
you're going to know that's the Savior. That's the salvation.
That's the one I need. He's going to keep you looking
to Christ. He's going to keep you trusting
Him alone. You may be uneasy for a time.
You may be troubled for a while, but you know that Him alone,
He is the Savior. Lord, please, please speak to
my heart, comfort me, teach me, cause me to rest right there
in Him. Let me hear those gracious words
that you speak to your children, to your saints. Now verse 13,
says, righteousness shall go before him and shall set us in
the way of his steps. Christ is all our salvation and
he leads his people in righteousness. That is, we follow him, we look
to him. Our Lord said, he that followeth
me shall not walk in darkness. but shall have the light of life. In other words, we cease to trust
in the things that we're doing to help us, to add something,
to make us righteous. We cease trusting those works
of bondage, which caused us to be in fear constantly, to doubt,
to worry all the time because we thought there was something
that we had to do. But when you see that Christ
has done it all, there is peace and comfort. So in this, we see
in Psalm 85, the Lord teaches this child. He shows them the
witness of past mercies. for us to see personally, that's
the salvation I need. Then he causes his child to cry
out for those mercies for them. He brings this gospel to us and
makes us to cry out for them. Then we wait, we trust him, we're
waiting upon him to work this out fully. Now it's already done.
If he's giving you the cry of faith, it's because he's given
you faith. It's because he's already given
you faith in Christ. And then what does he do he continues
to confirm it to you through the preaching of Christ crucified
and what he's done. That's the blessing he gives
to his child. Gives them the cry because they
see Christ and his sufficiency and he keeps on confirming Christ
crucified to them. And so that's the blessing that
we see here in this psalm and that's done in every generation.
The church is always, in every age, crying out, Lord, have mercy
upon me. Pour out your spirit upon us,
Lord. So I pray the Lord bless that
word to your hearts, brethren. Amen. Our gracious Lord, we thank
you, Father, for your grace and for your mercy in the Son, in
your Son, Jesus Christ. Lord, we ourselves see what you
have done throughout all the ages what you have done to save
your people by the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, give us that cry. Give your people that cry in
this generation. Make us to look to you and cry
to you seeing our need and that you alone are the one who is
all sufficient and able to provide that salvation to me. Lord, keep
us there. Help us to listen for you. Lord,
we pray to you, trusting that you hear us, let us hear you. Let us wait upon you to hear
you speak that word of peace to us. Now, let us not go into
folly as so many do, but Lord, keep us. We trust that you began
this work, that you also will complete it. And Lord, continue
to bless us with the hearing of the gospel. And when it is
preached, Lord, let us hear with the hearing of faith to believe,
to behold, and to see what our God has done for us in his son,
Jesus Christ. And Lord, give us faith to believe
that you loved us and did it for us. It's in Christ's name
we pray and give thanks, amen. Right when I was about to go
out there and say something, they were done.