The title of this message is
God's Favor. God's Favor. We can't put a price
on that. To have God's Favor is to have
everything. It's to have everything in this
life and the life which is to come after this. Oh, to have
the favor of God Now, this chapter is clearly
gospel. Through and through, it's gospel.
We have God's favor, we have forgiveness, we have covering of sin, our
sins, wrath taken away, He has taken away his wrath and the
fierceness of his anger. We have mercy and truth meeting
together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. If we learn what is said in this
Psalm, we have learned the Gospel. We will have learned the Gospel.
Now you'll notice in verses 1-3 how that all of this matter of
salvation is of God. He says six times in the first
three verses, Thou hast. You notice that when I was reading
it? Thou hast. Thou hast been favorable. Thou
hast brought back captivity. Thou hast forgiven. Thou hast
covered. Thou hast taken away your wrath. Thou hast taken away the fierceness
of thine anger. You did it. You did it. He didn't say because of our
repentance or because of our cooperation. You did this and
we've done this. No, you've done all of it. Thou hast done it. The Lord has
done it. And he starts out here in verse
1, he says, Thou hast been, and that's past tense. Has not God
been favorable to us? Thou hast been favorable to the
land. And here he's talking about God's
kingdom. God has been favorable to His
kingdom throughout the ages. And has He not been favorable
to us? He's been favorable to us in the things He's taken away
from us, and in the things He's given us. You know, when we usually
think about what God has taken, we think about material things,
don't we? We think He's taken away, like Job, He took away
his ten children. But you know what? Let's think
of it this way. He's taken away our sins. God
has taken away our sins. He's taken away our death. He's taken away our spiritual
death. He's taken away our sins. He's taken away everything that
separated us from Him. He's taken it out of the way.
Removed it. Oh, can we not with the psalmist
say, Thou hast been favorable to Thy people, Thy kingdom. And how's this? How has God been
favorable? Well, first of all, He's been
favorable by setting the captive free. He said, you've set us
free. You see this? Thou hast brought
back the captivity of Jacob. How many times has God brought
us back? How many times have we strayed
and He's brought us back? We strayed and He's brought us
back. How many times have we grown cold and He's brought us
back? How many times have we grown indifferent and He's brought
us back? How many times? You have brought back the captivity
of Jacob. He's brought back the captivity,
He set the captive free, everyone whom God saves. Knows this. You know this. I know this. We were slaves to
our sin nature. We were slaves to the spirit
of darkness. Slaves to it. We were lost in
sin. We were dead in trespasses, the
Scripture says in Ephesians 2, dead in trespasses and sins. And He's brought us back. Look in Psalm 30. In Psalm 30 verse 3, O Lord,
Thou hast brought up my soul from the grave, Thou hast kept
me alive, that I should not go down to the pit. Who has done
that? The Lord has done that. You've
kept me alive and you brought us up from the grave that we
should not go down to the pit. That bottomless pit. That bottomless
pit. You know, there are people there
now. There are people, I think of
this from time to time, I guess the Lord lays it on my mind,
because it makes me that much more appreciative that He has
chosen me, that He's called me, that He has saved me in Christ.
There are people in hell that have no hope. Some who've probably lived outwardly,
I'm just saying outwardly, better than I have. Better than I have. But they believe not on the Lord
Jesus Christ. They love not Christ. And I do.
And I do. I sit around and I think of that.
That weighs on my mind from time to time. I sit down and I know
the Lord brings that to my mind. Because it just makes me appreciate
His grace to me and to you who believe. We are here tonight
by the grace of God. Thou hast brought us back here
tonight. We can say that, can't we? We
were here last Thursday, looked at Psalm 84, and God has brought
us back here again tonight. And not only has He done this,
but look, He's forgiven the iniquity of thy people. He's forgiven
our iniquities. Our evil. Our sin. You know what that word forgiven
means? It means carried away. It has the same meaning if you
go over tonight or tomorrow and read Leviticus chapter 16. It
has the same meaning of the scapegoat. When Aaron laid his head and
confessed the sins of Israel on that scapegoat and it was
sent out to the wilderness by the hands of a fit man. It has
the same meaning. He has carried away our iniquity. He's forgiven it because He's
carried it away. He's taken it away. I didn't take it away. I didn't
put it away. He did it. All my iniquities, all my sins,
He Himself put them away without me asking Him to. He did it before
I even knew it. or He could have never had anything
to do with me. If the Lord was not satisfied with me, He could
never call me by His grace. Not effectually. He couldn't
do it. Thou hast forgiven the iniquity
of thy people. He would not have brought us
back if He hadn't forgiven us. And not only that, listen, He
says, you've covered all their sins. All our sins are covered. That makes me think of the mercy
seat, where that law is in the ark and is covered over by the
mercy seat. And there's where the blood of
atonement is put on the mercy seat. You've covered them. Now that doesn't mean, like if
I laid my jacket over top of my Bible here and my notes and
I've covered them. He's covered them in such a way
that they don't exist anymore. They don't exist anymore. They're
gone. You've put them away. You've covered all our sins,
not just the ones up until we believed, but all of them before
we even believed. You know, this is one of the
things that gives me comfort. Christ died for all my sins way
before I was born. Before I ever committed the first
one. Before I ever cried the first one. It comes forth from
the womb speaking lies. Before I spoke the first lie.
He put away all my sins. That's good news. That's good
news. He put them away. All our sins
are under the blood of Jesus. Put away by the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ, our God. The putting away of sin is of
God. It is of God. It's by the grace
of God. It's through the person and work
of God in Jesus Christ. He put them away. We see this
throughout the Old Testament, all throughout the Old Testament,
how the Lord is the one who put away sin. He provided the Passover
lamb for Israel in Egypt that night. No one asked God to do
that. Moses did not ask God to provide
a Passover lamb. No one. It didn't even come across
their mind. We don't hear even a hint of
it. But God says to Moses, you're going to take a lamb, and you're
going to kill the lamb, and they're going to put it over the doorpost
of all the houses. God came up with this. The Gospel
is God's Gospel. It's the everlasting Gospel.
The everlasting gospel. That means it was around before
the world was. It's called the everlasting gospel.
God put away sin. He's the one who came up with
putting away my sins and your sins. We couldn't have came up with
it. If it was up to us to come up with putting away of our sins,
do you know how we would do it? Works. It would be by works. We try to do it by works. God did it by grace. We don't deserve one thing that
God has done for us. Not one. He has taken away all His wrath
and fierce anger. You see, He took away the problem
that caused the wrath. He took away the iniquity. He
took away and covered our sins. And in so doing, He now is able
to take away His wrath from us. We don't have to fear God's wrath. We don't have to fear God's law. I don't fear God's law. Christ satisfied God's law. David
said, I love thy law. I love God's law. Do you love
God's law? I do. I love Him. I love God's law, but God's law
is not against me no more. God's law is not against me.
It's satisfied. It's satisfied. You see, He has
taken away all His wrath. Where did He take it? Where did He take it? I thought
about this. sitting in my study today, I
was talking to David Edmondson. I don't know if I was to call
him or text him. Anyway, I was talking to him,
and he said that they were in direct line for that tornado. He said that we were in direct
line for it, and then it went around. It moved away from them
and went around them. You and I were in direct line
for God's wrath, and it went around to Calvary. That's where
it went. God's wrath and anger, the fierceness
of His anger, it was directed at us and it moved to Calvary. And there, all that was destined
for us was laid on Jesus Christ. We were by nature children of
wrath, even as others. By nature we were. But God's
wrath went to Christ. and spent itself out on Him. And I don't have to worry about
it no more. I don't have to deal with it. You and I deal with God's grace.
We don't have to deal with wrath. I can't imagine it. I can't imagine
eternal punishment. I can't imagine eternal anger. I can't imagine the fierceness
of God's anger forever and ever and ever. I don't have to deal
with that. Nor do you who believe. I want to say Selah after that. Pause and think about what I
just said. Pause and think about this. God took His wrath out on His
Son, Jesus Christ. He drank the cup dry. Over in
Zechariah 13, verse 7, it says, Awake, O sword, against the shepherd. The sword of justice awoke against
Christ. He took it. Now in verses 1-3
we have what God has done for us. Thou has been favorable to
us. Thou has brought back the captivity
of Jacob. Speaking of us, we are the sons
of Jacob, aren't we? We are the true sons of Jacob.
Thou has forgiven the iniquity of Thy people. Thou has covered
all their sins. Thou hast taken away all Thy
wrath, Thou hast turned Thyself from the fierceness of Thine
anger." This is what God has done for us. He's done this for
us in grace and mercy. He's done this for us. But now
we need God to do something. We need God to do something for
us. In us. In us, I'm talking about. This
is what He's done for us. We need Him to do something in
us. And He says in verse 4, Turn us. Turn us. Turn us from our sins. Turn us from our iniquities.
Turn us from our coldness. Turn us from our indifference.
When you read the Old Testament, it's just like Israel sins, and
it's just in trouble, and they're in captivity, and He brings them
out of it. They're in trouble. They're in sin. How many times
do you reckon we sin a day? How many times do you sin a day?
You can't count it. I can't count, really, because
you and I cannot conceive nor see sin as God sees it. We can't
comprehend it. And yet, here we are tonight. God's been favorable to us. He's
brought us back here again tonight. But here's something that we
need God to do for us, in us, is to turn us The psalmist says
in another place, turn us and we shall be turned. We do not turn to God in the
energy of the flesh. No one can do that or will do
that. We need God to do it. It takes the power of God to
turn a sinner from their his or her sins. It takes God to
do that. Turn us, Lord, turn us. We need
to be turned to God, we need to be turned to faith, we need
to be turned to repentance, turn us. And you'll notice what he
says here, turn us. Again, again, and again, and you can
just put that out from that sentence. Turn us again, and again, and
again. We constantly need God to turn
us, don't we? Turn us to himself. How many
times is our attention given to the things of this world?
How many times do we get caught up in it? And we need God to
turn us again. Turn our attention to what's
real. Turn our attention to what's
important. Help us to focus again. Help
us to set our hearts on things above again, and again, and again. Turn us again. That's what he's
saying. Turn us, O God of our salvation,
and cause thine anger toward us to cease. Turn us, O God of our salvation. God is our salvation. God is
our salvation. He devised it. He purposed it. He executes it. He sustains us. And He'll bring it to final glory.
God is the God of our salvation. And He's the only one who can
cause His anger toward us to cease. You know, sometimes the
chastening hand of God seems like anger, doesn't it? Sometimes it seems like anger
You know, I used to think my parents were so I used to think
when dad whipped me he must hate me That is not why he whipped
me I can assure you my mother and she whipped me and Smacked
me in the mouth one time I said darn it and she turned around
and about slapped the daylights out of me because I said that
You know why? Because she loved me really because
she loved me He chastens every son whom He receives. He chastens
them out of love. But to us, on our end of it,
it seems like anger, doesn't it? It's not. It's not anger,
it's love. And He says in verse 5, Will
you be angry forever? Will you spread your anger to
all generations? Will God be angry forever? No. No. We have His Word on it. Let
me read you something out of Micah chapter 7. In my Bible
it's 1158. Micah 11 chapter 7. Let me read
this to you. Who is a God like unto thee,
who can be compared to thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and
passes by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage?
He retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in
mercy. He retains not his anger for
ever. Look over in Psalm 103. I wrote
down several, but we'll just look at these two. In Psalm 103, in verse 9, He will not always chide, neither
will He keep His anger forever. So the answer to that is no.
Not against His people. It may feel like it, but no,
He will not do that. He will not keep His anger forever,
nor will He spread His anger to the generations to come. In
other words, the sons will not suffer for the sins of the father.
That's what He's saying. No, He won't. He won't. Now let's go back here to Psalm
85. Will you be angry with us forever?
Will you draw out that anger? Will thou draw out that anger
to all generations? No, He won't. Will thou not revive
us again? Yes, He will. Yes, yes, He will. He will revive us again. We need
to be revived often. Again and again and again. We
need to be revived. Just like, turn us. Now I know
it doesn't say again there, but that's what the meaning is. Turn
us again. And here, here is revive us again. Refresh us. Refresh us. Here's what this word means.
I looked it up in Strong's today. To revive means to nourish. Will
you not nourish us again? He said in one place, will a
mother forget her sucking child? He said, yes, she will. But I
will not forget you. Yes, He will nourish us again.
Are you being nourished tonight? If you came for it, you are.
If you came to appear before the Lord to be fed by Him, I
promise you, you'll be fed. You will be fed. And then it
means to quicken. Revive us again, quicken us again. Oh, quicken my heart. Quicken
Your Word in my heart. Make Your Word right now that
we are reading, make it to live in my heart. Let me leave here
tonight with Your Word living in my heart, quicken, speaking
to my heart. It also means recover. Will you
not recover us from our spiritual stupor, lack of faith? It also means to make whole.
It means to make whole. And you know how He does this?
By His Spirit through the preaching of His Word. Make much of the
Word of God. This is how He does it. And here's the reason why. That
we may rejoice. That we may rejoice in thee. That thy people may rejoice in
thee. I want to do that tonight. And
I want to do that tomorrow when I get up. I honestly want to
be able to rejoice in God my Savior. But He'll have to quicken me
to do it. He'll have to revive me again. There's so much of
this flesh still with us. And show us Thy mercy, O Lord,
O Jehovah! Jehovah, show us Thy mercy. Show us Thy mercy. You know, it's hard to see the
mercy of God through tear-stained eyes, isn't it? When you're so
pressed down and you feel like God's angry with you. But He's
saying here, Let us get a glimpse of your mercy again. Moses said, Lord, show me your
glory. And you know what he said? He
said, I'll be merciful to whom I'll be merciful. Let me see
one more time your sovereign mercy to me. He didn't have to
save me. Let me understand this. Let me,
in my heart, experience this one more time. Your sovereign
mercy to me. You plucked me like a bran from
the fire. Show me, open my eyes, open my
heart, and give me another glimpse of your mercy to me. Your saving, sovereign mercy. Let me see it once again. And grant us Thy salvation. Grant
us Thy salvation. Show us Thy mercy, O Lord, and
grant us Thy salvation. That salvation that You granted
to us when we first believed. You remember that? You remember
when you first believed? Boy, I can tell you, I was just like
astounded. I mean, I was. I was astounded.
But you know, life happens and trials happen. Boy, I tell you,
sometimes you're down here in a valley and you can't see it
no more. Grant us Thy salvation. Let me
have another glimpse of Thy salvation in Jesus Christ like I had at
first. Let me see it. Let me see it. Show us Your mercy. Show us Your grace. A taste again
of your salvation. Now, after speaking and asking
the Lord these things and casting His care upon the Lord and presenting
His prayer before the Lord, I like what He says. After speaking,
He's now ready to listen. You ready to listen? You come
ready to listen tonight. I was listening to a message
last night, the one that Tommy had sent me, I believe. And I
was listening to that, and I caught my mind wandering. And I was
trying to listen. And I would catch myself and
I quit looking out. I was in my blind, my dear blind
listening to Henry. I shouldn't mention this, I'm
looking at this, hoping this deer comes out. And I'm watching,
I'm waiting for it to come out, and I'm looking, I'm hoping,
and I'm thinking, quit and listen. And I put my head down, quit
looking at the blind, I just put my head down so I could listen,
because my eyes were drawing attention to another place that
was taking away my listening skills. And so I quit looking,
I just looked down. And I was trying to just listen
to every word. Listen. And he says here in verse 8, I will hear what
God the Lord will speak. Now this is interesting. Here's
what he's saying. I expect to hear from God. I have cast my care upon Him.
I have prayed. I have laid out my petition before
Him." Now this is important. Don't miss this. I expect to
hear from Him. This convicted me when I was
reading this. This one did. Do you expect to
hear from God when you pray? When you cast your care upon
Him, Do I honestly expect Him to answer that prayer? That's what he's saying. Now
I'm going to shut up. For I expect to hear from God. I expect Him to answer this prayer. This is faith. This is faith
speaking right here. I expect to hear from Him. I
expect God to answer this prayer. Now listen, it is a slap in God's
face to pray and not expect Him to answer. What a slap in the
face. Let's learn not to pray until
we are in the attitude to pray and expect God to answer when
we pray. That's serious business. Praying
is serious business. Calling upon God is serious business.
Using the name of Jesus Christ is serious business. Now listen, He expects Him to
speak, and only the Lord can speak to our souls and give us
peace, grant us the petition we ask for, and we should come with faith.
You know, here you say, well, expecting Him to answer, is that
presumption? Is that being a little bit presumption?
No, that's called faith. That's called believing. Cast
all your cares upon Him, for He careth for you. We ought to expect Him. And when
He speaks, we ought to expect peace. We ought to expect some comfort
from it. Even if he, listen, even if he answers it in a different
way than we expect. Because here's the piece we ought
to get out of it. He's made known his will. He
has made known his will. And that ought to give us peace. But we ought to expect. Is it asking too much to expect
God to answer the prayers of His children? Our Lord said this, I know I'm
going to misquote this, I'm just going to paraphrase a little
bit. If you have a son or daughter that ask you, if they ask you
for a piece of bread, are you going to give them a scorpion?
No, you're going to give them a piece of bread. You're going to give Him a piece
of bread. And He's going to give us an answer to our prayers. He's
going to do that. And listen, He says here, I will
hear what God the Lord will speak. He has shut up. Here's what He's
done, and this is what we need to do. We need to cast our care upon
Him and shut up and sit at His feet and listen to the answer. Be like Mary that sat at His
feet and listened to Him. She listened to Him. I will hear. I will hear. You know, there's
nothing more important than hearing the Word of God. Faith comes
by hearing, hearing by the Word of God. The Lord said this one time.
He said that it'd be better to be halt and maim and go into
heaven than to be made whole and go straight to hell. He said
it's better to be lame. He said it's better if your eye
offends you. If your eye offends you, what'd
He say? Pluck it out. But He never said anything like
that about the ear. He never said it about the ear,
because the ear is where we hear. We hear the Lord speak. We hear
the Word of God. He said, you'd better pluck out
your eye. If your hand offends you, what? If your foot offends,
what? Cut it off. But He never said
that about your ear. No. You and I don't realize how
important it is, what's going on right now. We are hearing
the Word of God. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing
by the Word of God. It's the most important of all
our senses, so to speak, of all our senses. The most important
is hearing. Take heed how you hear. With what measure you meet it
with, it will be measured to you again. It doesn't say, take
heed how you see, or smell, or taste, or feel, but how you hear. Because that's going right on
inside of you. Take heed, he says, and that's
what he says here, I will hear. I will tune my ear to your voice. I will strain to listen to you. For He will speak peace." Oh, He'll speak peace unto His
people, unto His saints. That's faith. He will. He expects
it. He expects God to speak peace.
Do we expect God to speak peace to us when our hearts are troubled? Do we expect it? We ought to.
Because the Lord of peace died for us. My peace I give unto
you. He died that we might have peace. Oh, I will hear what He will
say to me. And He says this, I will hear what God the Lord
will speak, for He will speak peace unto His people, unto His
saints. But let them not turn again to
folly." What is folly? What is it? Not waiting on the
Lord? You just prayed, didn't you?
Wait on Him. It's folly not to wait on Him. It's finding fault
with His providence, murmuring, complaining. Folly is to doubt. Can the Lord provide a table
in the wilderness, they said? To doubt. Self-righteousness. But here's
what folly means here in this portion of Scripture. Self-confidence. Let them not return to self-confidence. We can do this now. We got it.
We don't ever have it. We can't take one step without
falling except by His grace. Let them not return to their
folly. And here's a fact, verse 9, I'll
hurry along here. Surely His salvation is not of
them that fear Him. Do you fear the Lord? Do I fear
the Lord? Do I have a real genuine fear of the Lord? His salvation is near you. It's
so near you, it's in you. Christ in you. The hope of glory. Surely His salvation is nigh
them that fear Him, that glory may dwell in our land. But now
here is what makes all the above possible. All the forgiveness, the bringing
back to captivity, the covering of sin, here's what makes it
all possible. Mercy and truth are met together. Righteousness
and peace have kissed each other. When I was reading this over
and over, I could see in my mind these attributes, these attributes
of God. These are attributes of God.
I could see these attributes of God sitting down in that council
hall of eternity and talking and discussing on how mercy and
truth are going to meet together. How's mercy going to meet with
truth? Because the truth is, you have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. And the soul that
sinneth shall surely die. So truth and righteousness demand
your death. But mercy cries out on your behalf. Mercy cries out in peace. Peace
and mercy sitting together. Righteousness and truth sitting
together. And then here comes the answer. Jesus Christ. There's the answer. At Calvary. At Calvary. Mercy and truth. Righteousness and peace were
able to get together in harmony. The attributes of God, all the
attributes of God harmonize at Calvary. They meet together in
Jesus Christ. God can be a merciful God. He
can be a just God and a Savior. Mercy and truth meet together
in Christ. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other in Christ. And you and I are saved. You
and I are saved. Isn't that good? And he says here, in truth, now
truth shall spring out of the earth. I read a lot of different
things on this, but I'll tell you what hit me. Truth shall
spring out of the earth. Righteousness shall look down
from heaven. The Lord Jesus Christ said, I
am the way, the truth, and the life. Early that morning, early
that first day of the week, truth came out of the earth. Truth
came out of that grave. Truth ascended on high, seated
at God's right hand. in truth is called the Lord our
righteousness. And now He looks down from heaven
on us. He looks down on us. He sees us. He sees us. You know, back in Genesis it
says the Lord looked down from heaven and what did He see? That
the imagination of man was evil and that continually. And Noah
found grace in his sight and he built an ark. Well, Jesus
Christ is that ark. He is the Lord our righteousness.
And right now, When God looks down on us, you know what He
sees? Righteousness. He sees a righteous
people. Believe it or not. Well, you
better believe it. He sees a righteous people. A spotless people. That's what
He sees. Yea, the Lord shall give that
which is good. He'll give that which is good. All things it says works together
for our good. You know, from God's perspective,
where God sits, everything that's going on, everything that has
anything to do with me and you is good. He's conforming us to
the image of Christ. Is that good? Everything that's
happening to me is conforming me to the image of Christ. That's
good. Everything He gives me is good.
Everything He takes away is good. He gives nothing but good. Oh, he says, Yea, the Lord shall
give that which is good, and our land shall yield her increase,
spiritual growth, spiritual maturity, fruit of the Spirit, it will
increase, love, joy, peace, longsuffering. And righteousness shall go before
Him, and shall set us in the way of His steps. Righteousness shall go before
Him, The Lord our righteousness, He's
always gone before. He's always led the way. He's
always led the way. He's the firstborn, isn't He?
He's the firstborn of every creature. He leads the way. He's the one
who's reconciled us to God and set us in the way of His steps.
He enables us to walk even as He walked. We don't do it perfectly,
but we do walk even as He walked. We walk in faith. We walk in
hope. We walk in love. Have we not been favored of God? It just troubles me. It troubles
me. It troubles me that I can't grasp
this more than I do. It troubles me. I want to lay
hold, and Paul says this in Philippians, I want to lay hold of that for
which I am laid a hold of. Christ has laid a hold of me.
But boy, I want to lay a hold of Him. I want to understand
Him. I want to know the power of His resurrected life in me.
I want to be awed to stand in awe of the fact that
I have His favor, while hell is full of those who've perished
and have no hope, and I have His favor. That ought to make
you walk softly before God. That ought to make every one
of us walk softly before God, that we have His favor.