Good evening. I sent a text to
Gabe earlier this afternoon to see how they were doing. They're
OK, and they're heading home tonight. So I pray the Lord will
return them home to us safely. Our text is going to be in Psalm
85, but if you've got your place, hold it there and turn over to
Luke chapter 24 with me. I got to thinking about this
week, and it seems to me nearly every time
we come together, every week, we either get some new news,
or we get refreshed with some old distressing news, an update,
someone else is sick, Someone else is going through a trial. Someone else is going through
trouble. And as I thought about the most recent of these, I tried
to find somewhere in scripture that might give us some direction,
some encouragement. And I eventually came upon this
passage. Luke chapter 24, we'll start
reading verse 13. Luke 24, 13, and behold, two
of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which
was from Jerusalem, about threescore furlongs. And they talked together
of all these things which had happened. And it came to pass
that while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew
near and went with them. But their eyes were holden that
they should not know him. And he said unto them, What manner
of communications are these that ye have one to another as ye
walk and are sad? And one of them, whose name was
Cleopas, answering, said unto him, Art thou only a stranger
in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to
pass there in these days? And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him concerning
Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and
word before God and all the people, and how the chief priests and
our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death and have crucified
him. But we trusted that it had been
he which should have redeemed Israel. And beside all this,
today is the third day since these things were done. Yea,
and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which
were early at the sepulchre. And when they found not his body,
they came, saying that they had also seen a vision of angels,
which said that he was alive. And certain of them which were
with us went to the sepulchre, and found it even so as the women
had said. but him they saw not." We tend
to read passages like this, and because we know the end result,
because we know the outcome of the story, we tend to forget
these are men. They're men just like us. They
had passions, they had emotions, they had doubts, they had fears. And they were all, our Lord had to teach all of
them to walk by faith, just like he does to us. The passage we
just read was a moment in time for these men. They lived it. They were distressed. They were
confused. They were grieving. They were
heartbroken. They were full of doubt. They
had, in short, forgotten the promises of their Lord. Now let's look at verse 25. Then our Lord said unto them,
O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophet
hath spoken! Ought not Christ to have suffered
these things, and to have entered into his glory? And beginning
at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all
the scriptures the things concerning himself. In their doubts, their
fears, their unbelief, our Lord came to these two men, and in
essence, in the briefest way I can say it, he told them what
the Lord had done. Turn back with me to Psalm 85. Psalm 85, verse one. Lord, thou hast been favorable
unto thy land. Thou hast brought back the captivity
of Jacob. Thou hast forgiven the iniquity
of thy people. Thou hast covered all their sin. Thou hast taken away all thy
wrath. Thou hast turned thyself from
the fierceness of thine anger. Turn us, O God of our salvation,
and cause thine anger toward us to cease." As we go through this psalm,
we're going to spend most of the evening on the first four
verses. And in this psalm, we see it is the Lord that has done. When he did this, what he has
done, how and at what cost to him he accomplished these things,
the result and our response. Psalm 85 verse 1, Lord, the psalm
opens with capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, the
eternal, immutable, only God. This is the name by which he
revealed himself as the God who saves, Jehovah God. the one God who in the last days
manifested Himself in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. As
we read, all of this book concerns Him. I pray that the Lord will
be willing to reveal Him to us this evening, in this short amount
of time we have. Note that this psalm begins with
Lord alone. It is not Lord and. There's no Lord and my faith. There's no Lord and my works. It is the Lord, the Lord alone
who has done. When did he do these works? Lord,
thou hast. When did he perform these? Was
it 2,000 years ago on the cross? Long before that. The psalm continually
reads hast, past tense. It's been done when the psalm
was written. What about, was it performed
when David was set upon the throne of Israel? Before that, when
Abraham was called from Ur of the Chaldees, still further back,
when was our salvation accomplished? It was accomplished by the lamb
slain from the foundation of the world. In God's eternal purpose,
he chose a people to call his own out of a fallen, sinful,
rebellious race. He chose them, He provided for
them, He calls them, and He keeps them. He did it before He even
formed them. And in time, in the process of
our life, He reveals to us, His called, redeemed, chosen people,
what He has done. In time, He showed the slain
Lamb, but that Lamb was ever before him. Proverbs 8, 22 and
23, our Lord speaking in the voice of wisdom says, The Lord,
capital L-O-R-D again, the Lord possessed me in the beginning
of His way, before His works of old. I was set up from everlasting,
from the beginning, or ever the earth was. And in glory, John
heard those redeemed souls singing, worthy is the lamb that was slain
to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor
and glory and blessing. Our Lord, in his eternal purpose,
has accomplished salvation. Verse 1, Lord, thou hast been
favorable unto thy land. Why is it remarkable that the
Lord would be favorable to his land? It's his. He created it. He formed it. He upholds it with the word of
his power. Is it any surprise that the Lord
should be favorable to His land? When we consider who He is and
what the land is, we should be very surprised. He is the holy,
righteous Lord God of heaven, and the land is cursed. Genesis
3.17 says, And unto Adam the Lord God said, Because thou hast
hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree
of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it, cursed
is the ground for thy sake. It is a great mercy and a blessing
that the Lord God is favorable unto His lambs. But what does it mean that he's
favorable? What does that word mean to the land? Simply put,
it means life. The word favorably here is also
translated in other places as accepted. To be accepted of God,
to have his favor, means life. Our Lord Jesus Christ has been
favorable to his land. Back in verse 1, Lord, thou hast
been favorable unto thy land. Thou hast brought back the captivity
of Jacob. Does your heart skip a beat,
just get a little bit excited when you hear promises that are
given to Jacob? This passage would have been
just as true if it had been written, Thou hast brought back the captivity
of Abraham, the father of the faithful. Or if it had been written,
Thou hast brought back the captivity of Isaac, the promised son. But as it's written, Thou hast
brought back the captivity of Jacob gives me more hope than
the other two ever could. I can seldom relate to the father
of the faithful, the friend of God. I don't always feel the
assurance of being a promised child. But Jacob, that supplanter,
that trickster, I know him. I can relate to him. That sinner
by birth and by practice, that's me. I can enter into a promise
made to that sinner, to Jacob. Jacob, like his father Adam before
him, passed down his nature to his children, who sold themselves
into bondage in Egypt, and when they had no means to escape,
no price to pay, were remembered by the Lord their God because
of the covenant he made with their fathers. Thou, Lord Jesus Christ, thou
hast brought back, thou hast redeemed the captivity of Jacob. When we had nothing and no way
to redeem ourselves, being sold under sin, the Lord our God paid
our debt and brought back our captivity. Verse 2. Thou hast forgiven the
iniquity of thy people. Thou hast covered all their sin. Selah. We would do well to remember
this Selah here. I noticed when Stan read it,
he paused at that verse. Pause here. Consider what's being
said. Repeat it. Emphasize it. Thou
hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people. Thou hast covered
all their sin. Lord Jesus Christ has forgiven. He has borne, carried, taken
away the iniquity of his people. Our actions Our guilt, our iniquities
have separated between you and your God. The things I've done
in word, thought, act that I should not have done, and those things
that I haven't done that I should have done have separated me from
my God. But we read, O my Lord, hast
borne them away by thyself." The Lord says to us in Isaiah
40, verse 2, speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her
that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned,
for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her
sins. Thou hast forgiven the iniquity
of Thy people, and Thou hast covered all their sin. Our iniquities
our Lord has borne and carried them away. Our sins, what I am,
He has covered. He has made atonement for me
for what I am by my nature. We have a mighty Savior. Our
Lord Jesus Christ, consider what He has accomplished for those
given to Him by His Father, for those who are written in the
Lamb's Book of Life. Lord, Thou hast been favorable
unto Thy land. Thou hast brought back the captivity
of Jacob. Thou hast forgiven the iniquity
of Thy people. Thou hast covered all their sin. How, at what cost did our Lord
accomplish this salvation? Look down with me in verse 10.
Psalm 85, verse 10. Mercy and truth are met together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed. Four of God's divine attributes,
mercy, truth, righteousness, and peace. They all dwell in
him with no conflict. But when it comes to regard of
Adam's race, there is a division. Should God regard us outside
of Christ in our natural estate, these four attributes cry out
against us. Mercy should regard us and say,
blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. But there are no merciful among
Adam's descendants. Turn with me to Romans chapter
3. Romans 3, verse 13, I'm going
to read this as it applies to me personally. The passage has a lot of their,
T-H-E-I-R. I'm going to read this as my words. This is what I am
by nature. My throat is an open sepulcher. With my tongue, I have used deceit. The poison of Asp is under my
lips. My mouth is full of cursing and
bitterness. My feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are my
ways, and the way of peace have I not known. There is no fear
of God before my eyes. There are no merciful among Adam's
descendants that we may obtain mercy. Truth regards the sons
of Adam and declares, the soul that sinneth, it shall die. Righteousness and peace, here
in Romans 3, cry out, there is none righteous, no, not one. And the way of peace have they
not known? Peace continues and says the
carnal mind is enmity against God. In our sin, in our rebellion,
in our carnal state, there is nothing to recommend us to God.
There is nothing to overcome the barrier our sin causes that
has separated us from our God. How then did mercy and truth
meet? God was manifest in the flesh. The fullness of the Godhead dwells
in the man Jesus of Nazareth. God made himself to be the likeness
of sinful men. Full of mercy, he obtained mercy
as he walked this land, this land of his, veiled as a man. He came and as he was merciful,
because he walked for his people, we were merciful in him. As he
obtained mercy, we obtained mercy in him. As he walked in the world,
he declared, I am the way, the truth, the life. mercy and truth
met together in our Lord Jesus Christ. When he, taking the burden
of our iniquities upon himself, went to Calvary's cross and shed
his precious blood, he endured the wrath I deserved. He protected those that he loves,
and he covered our sin under his blood. Turn over with me
to Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians 2 beginning in verse
11. Ephesians 2.11, Wherefore, remember
that ye, being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called
uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision in
the flesh made by hands, that at that time ye were without
Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers
from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God
in the world. But now, in Christ Jesus, ye
who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
For he is our peace, who hath made both one and hath broken
down the middle wall of partition between us, having abolished
in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained
in ordinances, for to make in himself of twain one new man,
so making peace. and that he might reconcile both
unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby,
and came and preached peace to you, which were afar off, and
to them that were nigh. On that cross, enduring the wrath
we deserve, righteousness and peace kissed. Go back with me
to Psalm 85. What's the result of mercy and
truth are met together, righteousness and peace have kissed? Psalm
85, verse three. Thou has taken away all thy wrath. thou hast turned thyself from
the fierceness of thine anger. Our iniquity has been borne away
by our Lord. As the scapegoat of old was led
away into the wilderness, never to be seen again, our iniquities
have been borne away so effectually that the ever-present, all-knowing
God of them. Our sin has been covered by His
blood, and where there is an absence of sin, there is peace
with God. There is no anger from God to
those who Christ died for. Given all that He has done for
us, what is our response? when God sends His Spirit and
reveals to us we are sinners indeed, in need of a great and
merciful Savior. And He reveals to us what He
alone has accomplished, what we deserved, the cost that He
paid to secure our salvation. What is our response? Verse 4,
turn us O God of our salvation, and cause thine anger toward
us to cease." What is our response? We cry out for mercy to the God
we have offended and sinned against, and thanks be to God, He delighteth
in mercy. When we are assaulted with the
trying times brought about by dwelling in this flesh. When
we are full of doubts and fears, when unbelief so easily besets
us, may the Lord be pleased to turn us that we may behold what
the Lord has done. If he's so pleased to do so,
And may our hearts go from being cold and distraught and heavy
to the same as the hearts of those two men on the road to
Emmaus who said, did not our heart burn within us while he
talked with us by the way and while he opened to us the scriptures? May the Lord be pleased to bless
that to us.